Written by the author of "Shattered Peace" and "Energy Future", this book brings to life the tycoons, wildcatters, monopolists, regulators, presidents, generals and sheiks whose struggle for oil has shaken the world economy, dictated the outcome of wars, transformed the destiny of Britain and the world and profoundly changed all our lives. Beginning with the first oil well of the 1850s and continuing up to Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait, it is a story of greed, gumption nad ingenuity, all in pursuit of "the prize"—worldwide economic, military and political mastery through the control of oil.

The book includes the story of Shell Oil, a company forged in defiance of the Standard Oil monopoly by an upstart London trader, using Rothchild connections, Russian oil and Dutch petrolium concession in the East Indies. The central strategic role of oil in both world wars—from the decisive 4-knot-per-hour advantage of oil-burning ships in World War I to Rommel's stalled tank advance at El Alamein in War II (he literally ran out of petrol) The underground battle to win the greatest prize of all—the Saudi oil concession. The inside story of the discovery of North Sea Oil and its crucial role in undermining the OPEC monopoly.

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Comments

"Spellbinding...irresistible...monumental...must be read to understand the first thing about the role of oil in modern history."-- The New York Times

"A masterly narrative...The Prize portrays the interweaving of national and corporate interests, the conflicts and stratagems, the miscalculations, the follies, and the ironies."-- James Schlesinger, former U.S. Secretary of Defense and U.S. Secretary of Energy

"Splendid and epic history of oil.... The story is brilliantly told...with its remarkable cast of characters." -- The Wall Street Journal

"Impassioned and riveting...only in the great epics of Homer will readers regularly run into a comparable string of larger-than-life swashbucklers and statesmen, heroes and villains."-- San Francisco Examiner

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Contents

List of Maps

List Of Illustrations

Prologue

Part I: The Founders

1 Oil on the Brain: The Beginning

2 "Our Plan": John D. Rockefeller and the Combination of American Oil

3 Competitive Commerce

4 The New Century

5 The Dragon Slain

6 The Oil Wars: The Rise of Royal Dutch, the Fall of Imperial Russia

7 "Beer and Skittles" in Persia

8 The Fateful Plunge

Part II: The Global Struggle

9 The Blood of Victory: World War I

10 Opening the Door on the Middle East: The Turkish Petroleum Company

11 From Shortage to Surplus: The Age of Gasoline

12 "The Fight for New Production"

13 The Flood

14 "Friends"—and Enemies

15 The Arabian Concessions: The World That Frank Holmes Made

Part III: War and Strategy

16 Japan's Road to War

17 Germany's Formula for War

18 Japan's Achilles' Heel

19 The Allies' War

Part IV: The Hydrocarbon Age

20 The New Center of Gravity

21 The Postwar Petroleum Order

22 Fifty-Fifty: The New Deal in Oil

23 "Old Mossy" and the Struggle for Iran

24 The Suez Crisis

25 The Elephants

26 OPEC and the Surge Pot

27 Hydrocarbon Man

Part V: The Battle For World Mastery

28 The Hinge Years: Countries Versus Companies

29 The Oil Weapon

30 "Bidding for Our Life"

31 OPEC's Imperium

32 The Adjustment

33 The Second Shock: The Great Panic

34 "We're Going Down"

35 Just Another Commodity?

36 The Good Sweating: How Low Can It Go?

Epilogue

Chronology

Oil Prices and Production

Notes

Bibliography

Acknowledgments

Photo Credits

Index

About the Author