The Prize

Inside Oil

Three overarching themes emerge from the history of the oil business:

1. Oil is intertwined with capitalism and modern corporations – Oil is the world’s largest business. It powers the industry that developed modern pricing, marketing, corporate strategy and technology, both in the U.S. and internationally. Yet despite these deliberate efforts, luck, fate, risk and reward also have shaped the industry. It is so profitable that seven of the top 20 Fortune 500 firms are oil companies.
2. Oil is intrinsic to international politics and economics – World War I helped define oil’s geographical boundaries as replacement for the horse and the coal-fired engine. In World War II, Japan, Germany and the Allies all coveted oil. Japan attacked Pearl Harbor to gain access to oil in the East Indies, while the Nazis sought control of the oil fields in Russia’s Caucasus Mountains. After WWII, oil was the prize at stake in the 1956 Suez Crisis, which marked the end of European colonial power. Since the 1970s, oil has played a large role in the Iraq wars. It drove U.S. misadventures in Mexico, Russia and...