The Color of Oil: The History, the Money and the Politics of the World's Biggest Business

by Michael J. Economides

The primary colors of oil today are money (lots of it), technology (basic but demanding) and people (special ones). The colors of the rainbow can be seen in the 100+ oil producing countries. There are a dozen large petroleum producing and exporting countries. Yet most have little in their history that links them to wealth, technology and management. Corruption among the elite and governments, mismanagement and the squandering of the petroleum wealth are endemic. Culture is everything, and no other human endeavor makes this as pointedly obvious as the world of petroleum.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, History

220 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 2000

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 1 out of 5]

A fascinating read for all the wrong reasons. Two petrochemical PhD's write about oil and the chapters on the production and early history of oil were good to read. Where this flies horribly off the rails is when they veer into international relations, environmentalism and politics and their complete lack of understanding in any of these topics is simply astounding. Anyone who has read about oil producing states to any degree knows there are extremely obvious reasons why they are structured as such and these two blokes frame it as a skill issue or some unknown mystery.

I quit reading when I read bangers such as "environmentalism relies on pseudoscience" and "regulations are imposed on the assumption industries cannot be trusted" (paraphrased). What? These two dolts seem to forget that once upon a time children were dying in coal mines (America has been lowering its labor age for heavy industries recently...) or that corporations who go unchecked commit many crimes (Petronas, prior to this books release, were committing war crimes in Sudan....).

Its an embarrassing effort by people who are either too stupid to correctly analyse history and politics or were/are paid handsomely to produce some of the most thinly veiled propaganda ever put to paper. Absolutely disgusting read and you would be well served pirating this one and sticking to the first two chapters, if anything at all.

[Melissa]

It just wouldn't be fair for me to say anything about this book. A friend lent it to me to read, but I couldn't get any further than the second chapter. I was expecting discourse about oil and geopolitics, but there was nothing of that sort in the first chapter and I wasn't inspired to find out more.

[Matthew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Too basic. IT tries to cover everything and in the process doesn't cover anything enough. Very informative, nonetheless.

[Nancy Parker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good primer for readers wanting an overview of the oil industry and its history.