The oil industry had clearly entered a new era when a billion barrels or so no longer made much difference. From the early 1950s to the end of the 1960s, the world oil market was dominated by extraordinarily rapid growth, a tremendous surge that, like a powerful and somewhat frightening undertow, swept everyone in the industry forward with its seemingly irresistible force. Consumption grew at a pace that simply would not have been conceivable at the beginning of the postwar era. Yet, as rapidly as it grew, the availability of supplies grew even more swiftly.
