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

by Daniel Yergin

Three structures had already been tapped in Saudi Arabia, with reserves estimated at 750 million barrels. But the identification of similar structures suggested that the reserves might be far larger. The same applied in the other countries along the Gulf. The physical hardships were worth the trouble, many times over. For DeGolyer was an oil man, and to him the barren desert of the Arabian Peninsula was an El Dorado, the stuff of legend. He was overcome by excitement, for he recognized that he was investigating something for which no precedent existed in the history of the oil industry. Even he, who had discovered a well that flowed at 110,000 barrels per day, had never seen anything on so vast a scale in the course of half a century in the business.