Outside Magazine
There are two sides to the story of the biggest environmental lawsuit ever, but a new book tells only one of them.
August 25, 2014
In the 1970s and 1980s, Texaco extracted more than a billion barrels of oil from the Ecuadorean rainforest but spilled an estimated ...
Category: Oil
Mirage
Crude World
The Venezuela of Hugo Chavez
03/01/2013
(Excerpted from “Crude World: The Violent Twilight of Oil” by Peter Maass)
The addictions of Hugo Chávez, president of Venezuela, are regularly
in full view. On his television show, Aló Presidente, Chávez sips espresso
from ...
What Happened at the Macondo Well?
The New York Review of Books
September 29, 2011
The anniversary of the largest oil spill in American history passed with little notice this summer. On July 15, 2010, the ruptured BP oil well in the Gulf of Mexico was finally sealed after gushing oil for nearly three months, but there ...
Exxon’s Russian Roulette
The New York Review of Books
September 9, 2011
(The following was published on the New York Review’s blog.)
How can you turn $3.2 billion into $500 billion in a day?
If you are Vladimir Putin, the prime minister of Russia, and Rex Tillerson, the chief executive of Exxon, you announce a deal that ...
Five Best Books on Oil
The Wall Street Journal
August 21, 2010
(The Wall Street Journal publishes a column every week in which an author lists the five best books on a particular subject. This is my list on oil.)
1. The History of the Standard Oil Company
By Ida M. Tarbell
McClure, Phillips, 1904
John D. Rockefeller’s ...
The Ministry of Oil Defense
Foreign Policy
It’s not polite to say so, but if Americans understood just how many trillions their military was really spending on protecting oil, they wouldn’t stand for it.
August 5, 2010
Shortly after the Marines rolled into Baghdad and tore down a statue of Saddam Hussein, ...
To BP Or Not To BP?
The Big Money
Here’s why a spill-inspired boycott doesn’t make sense.
June 7, 2010
I needed to fill up the gas tank of a rental van a few days ago. The first station that came into view was a BP on 110th Street in Manhattan. I had to make a quick decision—should I buy gas from a company ...
Inside the Soul of an Oilman
The Big Money
Are petro-execs intrinsically more corrupt than other businessmen?
September 22, 2009
The following excerpt from “Crude World” was published by TheBigMoney.com.
I liked most oil executives I have met. They were hardworking men with a thrill for the ...
Scenes from the Violent Twilight of Oil
Foreign Policy
It succors and drowns human life. And for the last eight years, oil — and the people and places that make it — was my obsession.
September 8, 2009
Across the globe, oil is invoked as an agent of destiny. Oil will make you rich, oil will make you poor, oil will bring ...
Who’s Africa’s Worst Leader?
Slate
Hint: It’s probably not Robert Mugabe
June 24, 2008
A pop quiz: Who is the worst dictator in Africa?
a) Robert Mugabe
b) Robert Mugabe
c) Robert Mugabe
d) None of the above
The answer seems obvious. Thanks to extensive coverage in the news media and abundant criticism by Western governments, ...