Empires of Oil: Corporate Oil in Barbarian Worlds

by Duncan Clarke

We might think that the world's oil empires are invincible megaliths, dominated by American interests, but Duncan Clarke reveals the ways in which these empires will face huge challenges in the twenty-first century. Based on razor-sharp analysis of contemporary geopolitics and a deep knowledge of global history, he shows exactly why these empires are declining. He explains where the new empires of oil will be around the world; which of the hidden threats and unknown enemies are and will be the most serious; and where companies have gone wrong and can improve their global strategies. Empires of Oil reveals how the world will change because of global battles over the commodity that underpins our lives.

256 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2008

About the author

Duncan Clarke, born in Salisbury, Rhodesia, in 1948.

He has published numerous books including The House of Stone: An Unwritten Story, 2025; The Grandfather: Rhodesian Saga, 2025; Cecil Rhodes Library, 2024; Zambesia: The Literary Safari, 2024; The Quiet Rhodesian: Silent Servant 1909-1981, 2023, Accidental Author: Fifty Years Writing, Africa and the World, 2023; The Last Rhodesians: Society Adrift, 2022; and, Rhodes’ Ghost: The Conquest of Zambesia, 2020.

All these books are published by Royal Sable Publishing, and are available on Amazon.

Other Kindle e-Books published include the Series on The Zambesia Chronicles, 2025 - Lost Peoples of Zambesia: The Stone Age San; Zambesia's Origins: Terra Incognita; Strangers in Zambesia, El Dorado Discovered; Wilderness: The Early Explorers; Watersheds in Zambesia: Ruins, Disputes, Historians; Zambesia's Revelations: Literature & Literati; Zambesia's Landscapes: Populus & Historia.

Another Kindle Series focused on Cecil Rhodes' Private Library, entitled as The Cecil Rhodes Collection, includes e-Books on: Rhodes and 'The North'; Biographers & The Bibliophile; Africana & Cartography; Art, Biography, Geography, Maps; Classics, The Mind & Thoughts; Chronology & Bibliography.

Forthcoming: Twilight in Paradise: The 'Left Behind' Rhodesians, 2026.

Other publications by Duncan Clarke on the world oil industry - Battle for Barrels, Empires of Oil, Africa: Crude Continent, and Africa's Future: Darkness to Destiny - were published during 2006-12 by Profile Books in London.

Three Decades in the Long Grass, 2014, tells the story of Global Pacific & Partners, the firm founded by the author.

Duncan Clarke was founder and Chairman of the Board, Global Pacific & Partners, a private advisory firm in world oil and gas 1978-2016.

With B, Comm (Hons), Economics 1969, and PhD (Economics), University of St Andrews, 1975, he has published extensively on Africa and been advisor to numerous governments and companies in worldwide oil and energy.

Founder of Royal Sable Publishing, 2017.

For more on the author's books, and writing, 1969-2023, see www.duncan-clarke.com