Petroleum, Mining & Geological

The Prize : The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power

Daniel Yergin's first prize-winning book, Shattered Peace, was a history of the Cold War. Afterwards the young academic star joined the energy project of the Harvard Business School and wrote the best-seller Energy Future. Following on from there, The Prize, winner of the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction, is a comprehensive history of one of the commodities that powers the world--oil. Founded in the 19th century, the oil industry began producing kerosene for lamps and progressed to gasoline. Huge personal fortunes arose from it, and whole nations sprung out of the power politics of the oil wells. Yergin's fascinating account sweeps from early robber barons like John D. Rockefeller, to the oil crisis of the 1970s, through to the Gulf War.

Pulitzer Prize Winner -- and Now an Epic PBS Series

The Prize recounts the panoramic history of oil -- and the struggle for wealth power that has always surrounded oil. This struggle has shaken the world economy, dictated the outcome of wars, and transformed the destiny of men and nations. The Prize is as much a history of the twentieth century as of the oil industry itself. The canvas of this history is enormous -- from the drilling of the first well in Pennsylvania through two great world wars to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and Operation Desert Storm.

The cast extends from wildcatters and rogues to oil tycoons, and from Winston Churchill and Ibn Saud to George Bush and Saddam Hussein. The definitive work on the subject of oil and a major contribution to understanding our century, The Prize is a book of extraordinary breadth, riveting excitement -- and great importance.

The Long Emergency: Surviving the End of Oil, Climate Change, and Other Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-First Century

Nontechnical Guide to Petroleum Geology, Exploration, Drilling and Production (2nd Edition)

Biodiesel Basics and Beyond: A Comprehensive Guide to Production and Use for the Home and Farm

Biodiesel Basics and Beyond aims to separate fact from fiction and to educate potential home, farm, and co-operative manufacturers on the economic production of quality biodiesel from both waste and virgin oil feedstock. The book includes:

• detailed processes and equipment required to produce biodiesel fuel that meets North American standards
• how farmers can use excess oilseed as a feedstock for biodiesel production
• the use of the co-byproduct glycerin in the making of soap
• a guide to numerous reference materials and a list of supplier data

This is North America's definitive guide to responsibly producing biodiesel from waste vegetable oil, while minimizing your environmental footprint in the process.

The Oil and the Glory: The Pursuit of Empire and Fortune on the Caspian Sea

Remote, forbidding, and volatile, the Caspian Sea long tantalized the world with its vast oil reserves. But outsiders, blocked by the closed Soviet system, couldn’t get to it. Then the Soviet Union collapsed, and a wholesale rush into the region erupted. Along with oilmen, representatives of the world’s leading nations flocked to the Caspian for a share of the thirty billion barrels of proven oil reserves at stake, and a tense geopolitical struggle began. The main players were Moscow and Washington–the former seeking to retain control of its satellite states, and the latter intent on dislodging Russia to the benefit of the West.
The Oil and the Glory is the gripping account of this latest phase in the epochal struggle for control of the earth’s “black gold.” Steve LeVine, who was based in the region for The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and Newsweek, weaves an astonishing tale of high-stakes political gamesmanship, greed, and scandal, set in one of the most opaque corners of the world. In LeVine’s telling, the world’s energy giants jockey for position in the rich Kazakh and Azeri oilfields, while superpowers seek to gain a strategic foothold in the region and to keep each other in check. At the heart of the story is the contest to build and operate energy pipelines out of the landlocked region, the key to controlling the Caspian and its oil. The oil pipeline that resulted, the longest in the world, is among Washington’s greatest foreign policy triumphs in at least a decade and a half.
Along the way, LeVine introduces such players as James Giffen, an American moneyman who was also the political “fixer” for oil companies eager to do business on the Caspian and the broker for Kazakhstan’s president and ministers; John Deuss, the flamboyant Dutch oil trader who won big but lost even bigger; Heydar Aliyev, the oft-misunderstood Azeri president who transcended his past as a Soviet Politburo member and masterminded a scheme to loosen Russian control over its former colonies in the Caspian region; and all manner of rogues, adventurers, and others drawn by the irresistible pull of untold riches and the possible “final frontier” of the fossil-fuel era. The broader story is of the geopolitical questions of the Caspian oil bonanza, such as whether Russia can be a trusted ally and trading partner with the West, and what Washington’s entry into this important but chaotic region will mean for its long-term stability.
In an intense and suspenseful narrative, The Oil and the Glory is the definitive chronicle of events that are understood by few, but whose political and economic impact will be both profound and lasting.

"The collapse of the Soviet Union was a big opportunity for Big Oil, whose exploits are detailed in this fast-paced work of political and economic reportage by Wall Street Journal energy correspondent LeVine.
Westerners had been sniffing for black gold in Russia and its satellites long before the empire disintegrated, notes the author. Averell Harriman, “the Harvard-trained scion of nineteenth-century robber baron Edward Harriman,” tried his hand at the business before turning to manganese mining, while Armand Hammer “became a money launderer for the Bolsheviks, sneaked cash to secret Bolshevik agents in the United States, and profited handsomely as the representative in Russia of some thirty American companies.” Hammer set the tone for the Americans who flocked to the Caspian in the first years of the Clinton presidency, which maneuvered for the construction of an east-west oil pipeline that, by reversing the old pattern of Central Asian materials going north to Russia and coming back as products for sale, “would favor the West and disfavor Russia.” Not a nice way to treat a fledgling democracy, but the oil scouts, of course, considered Russia a rival for Central-Asian resources second only to Iran, with its heartfelt and long-standing enmity toward the United States in the region and abroad. These scouts–the first among equals being LeVine’s heart-of-darkness antihero, Jim Giffen–kept their distance when Russia still had control over the area, spurning a Gorbachev-era program to allow foreign co-ownership. But they rushed to support separatist movements and encouraged ethnic and political divisions that opened the door to an even bigger share of the wealth. The tale of Giffen’s rise and fall (the latter for perhaps surprising reasons) occupies much of the later pages, but he never loses sight of the bigger picture: namely, Central Asia as oil lamp and potential powder keg in the realpolitik of the next few years.
A complex story rendered comprehensible, with much drama and intrigue."--KIRKUS

Petroleum Refining in Nontechnical Language Third Edition (Pennwell Nontechnical Series)

The Properties of Petroleum Fluids

Petroleum Production Systems (Prentice Hall Petroleum Engineering Series)

Written by petroleum production engineers with extensive industrial as well as teaching experience, this is the only available advanced and comprehensive engineering textbook for petroleum reservoir and production engineering. Provides extensive coverage of well deliverability from oil, gas and two-phase reservoirs, wellbore flow performance, modern well test and production log analysis, matrix stimulation, hydraulic fracturing, artificial lift and environmental concerns. For advanced undergraduate and graduate students in petroleum engineering schools or professional courses, as well as for practicing petroleum engineers and technicians.

Oil & Gas Production in Nontechnical Language

This nontechnical treatment is a great introduction to oil and gas production for anyone from beginning petroleum engineering and geology students to accountants, salespersons, and other professionals interested in the industry. Co-authored by Martin Raymond, a veteran production manager, and William Leffler, one of the top petroleum nontechnical writers, it is an easy-to-read reference for those who deal with petroleum industry personnel and production issues in their jobs, but need a quick overview of the technical and business issues. Complete with helpful charts and diagrams, this book covers everything from production equipment and processes to theory, business operations, and strategies.

Petroleum Reservoir Rock and Fluid Properties

A strong foundation in reservoir rock and fluid properties is the backbone of almost all the activities in the petroleum industry. Petroleum Reservoir Rock and Fluid Properties offers a reliable representation of fundamental concepts and practical aspects that encompass this vast subject area.

The book provides up-to-date coverage of various rock and fluid properties using derivations, mathematical expressions, and various laboratory measurement techniques. Focused on achieving accurate and reliable data, it describes coring methods used for extracting samples from hydrocarbon formations and considerations for handling samples for conventional and special core analyses.

Detailing properties important to reservoir engineering and surface processing, the author emphasizes basic chemical and physical aspects of petroleum reservoir fluids, important phase behavior concepts, fluid sampling, compositional analysis, and assessing the validity of collected fluid samples. The book also presents PVT equipment, phase behavior analysis using laboratory tests, and calculations to elucidate a wide range of properties, such as hydrocarbon vapor liquid equilibria using commonly employed equations-of-state (EOS) models.

Covering both theoretical and practical aspects that facilitate the solution of problems encountered in real life situations, Petroleum Reservoir Rock and Fluid Properties is ideal for students in petroleum engineering, including those coming from different backgrounds in engineering. This book is also a valuable reference for chemical engineers diversifying into petroleum engineering and personnel engaged in core analysis, and PVT and reservoir fluid studies.