The New York Times Magazine
How the scarcity of oil may be making our antibribery laws obsolete.
December 22, 2007
James Giffen likes to share the wealth. His generosity to friends is said to have included $180,000 for jewelry, $30,000 for fur coats, a luxury speedboat, two snowmobiles ...
Category: Oil
Slick
Outside Magazine
Alan Dershowitz, meet Steven Donziger. On behalf of 30,000 inhabitants of Ecuador’s remote Oriente region, this New York lawyer is putting it to Big Oil. But will his multi-billion-dollar lawsuit establish a global precedent—or is he just looking for a scapegoat ...
The Price of Oil
The New York Times Magazine
December 18, 2005
More than 35 years ago, an offshore drilling rig spilled approximately three million gallons of oil into the waters near Santa Barbara. A massive slick covered hundreds of square miles and killed thousands of birds, seals and dolphins; the ...
The Breaking Point
The New York Times Magazine
Saudi Arabia, soaring demand and the theory of peak oil.
August 21, 2005
The largest oil terminal in the world, Ras Tanura, is located on the eastern coast of Saudi Arabia, along the Persian Gulf. From Ras Tanura’s control tower, you can see the classic ...
Road to Hell
The New Republic
Dispatch from the Niger Delta
January 31, 2005
A cheery sign at the waterfront of Elem Sangama says “Sea Side Lane,” and, on first glance, the village seems a bright spot in the otherwise unpleasant Niger Delta. In addition to its paved walkways, Sangama ...
A Touch of Crude
Mother Jones
How the pursuit of oil is propping up the West African dictatorship of Teodoro Obiang.
January 2005
The red dirt of the jungle meets a paved road on the outskirts of Ebebiyin, where a national celebration is about to begin. Women are singing and swaying in an African rhythm that ...
The Triumph of the Quiet Tycoon
The New York Times Magazine
This is a bad time to be a big-spending Russian oil billionaire. But Vagit Alekperov has figured out how to beat the system — you just play by Putin’s rules.
August 2, 2004
Pity, if you can, the richest man in Russia. With a fortune estimated at ...
Meet the New Boss
The New York Times Magazine
Dathar Khashab had what it took to maneuver his way up through the ranks in Saddam Hussein’s oil bureaucracy. When his new managers showed up wearing U.S.-issue fatigues, he didn’t miss a step.
June 8, 2003
There are two types of people who do ...
Sin City
The New Republic
How the French became Puritans.
April 30, 2001
“I represent the Mitterrand name,” the former French president’s son said unhappily as we lunched not long ago at Les Comediens, a Paris restaurant near his lawyer’s office. Jean-Christophe Mitterrand, ...