Action Inquiry or Age of Oil

Action Inquiry: The Secret of Timely and Transforming Leadership

Author: William R Torbert

"Action inquiry" is the process of transformational learning that individuals (and even whole organizations) can undertake to better assess current dangers and opportunities, act in a timely manner, and make future visions come true. Through short stories of leadership and organizational changes in the areas of business, politics, health care, and education, this book illustrates how this process can increase personal integrity, improve relationships, and lead to company profitability and long-term success.

Read also Managing Exports or Accounts Receivable Management

Age of Oil: The Mythology, History, and Future of the World's Most Controversial Resource

Author: Leonardo Maugeri

Oil is the most vital resource of our time. Because it is so important, misperceptions about the black gold abound. Leonardo Maugeri clears the cobwebs by describing the colorful history of oil, and explaining the fundamentals of oil production. He delivers a unique, fascinating, and controversial perspective on the industry—as only an insider could.

The history of the oil market has been marked, since its inception, by a succession of booms and busts, each one leading to a similar psychological climax and flawed political decisions. In a single generation, we've experienced the energy crisis of 1973; the dramatic oil countershock of 1986; the oil collapse of 1998-99 that gave rise to the idea of oil as "just another commodity;" and the sharp price increases following hurricane Katrina's devastation in the Gulf of Mexico. Today, we are experiencing a global oil boom that, paradoxically, seems to herald a gloomy era of scarcity exacerbated by growing consumption and the threat from Islamic terrorism in the oil-rich Middle East.

Maugeri argues that the pessimists are wrong. In the second part of his book, he debunks the main myths surrounding oil in our times, addressing whether we are indeed running out of oil, and the real impact of Islamic radicalism on oil-rich regions. By translating many of the technical concepts of oil productions into terms the average reader can easily grasp, Maugeri answers our questions.

Ultimately, he concludes that the wolf is not at the door. We are facing neither a problem of oil scarcity, nor an upcoming oil blackmail by forces hostile to the West. Only bad political decisions driven by a distorted view of current problems (and who is to blame for them) can doom us to a gloomy oil future.

Foreign Affairs

This informative book is really two in one: a concise treatment of the checkered but fascinating history of the oil industry, from Edwin Drake's first successful well and John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Trust to post-Saddam Iraq, and an extended nontechnical essay on the myths and misconceptions that have come to surround this important commodity. As senior vice president of Eni, the Italian oil firm, the author is an industry insider, but he draws on a wide range of scholarship and writes persuasively and well. The history he tells establishes that the oil industry has been subject to booms and busts since its inception (and to efforts to suppress competition to reduce that volatility). The essay argues that the current boom, too, will pass, as past "shortages" have, and be followed by a potential surplus. "Peak oil," the supposed impending exhaustion of oil, is given deservedly rough treatment, at least insofar as it is meant to imply an exhaustion of liquid fuels. "Oil independence" is given similarly critical treatment, as is the use by anyone of the "oil weapon" for any but the briefest period. Past projections of oil production also come in for critical scrutiny, as do U.S. energy policies. High oil prices induce a search for new oil, substitutes for oil, and methods to conserve oil, efforts that are all relaxed when oil prices are low. The author avers that in the long run oil prices will be in the range of $30-$32 a barrel so long as the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries continues to limit its output but that wide fluctuations around this range will continue.<

Library Journal

In today's discussions of the economic and geopolitical issues involving oil, separating fact from myth can be difficult. The authors of these books seek to debunk mythologies they perceive to be at play. Maugeri (group senior vice president, corporate strategies and planning, Eni, Italy) sets out to debunk petro-pessimists who argue that the age of oil is coming to an end. First, he recounts the history of oil discovery and production, relying on existing research, to show how people have feared the end of oil before and have always been wrong. There is not much here that one couldn't find in Daniel Yergin's The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money and Power. Then he looks at contemporary issues to show how the fears raised today about oil shortages are unfounded. This section is more engaging, as Maugeri leverages his insider's knowledge to cast doubt on those who argue that oil reserves are dwindling or that geopolitical concerns have rendered the future of oil production too unreliable to be viable. Maugeri's approach is not academic, thus contrasting significantly with that of Vitalis (political science, Univ. of Pennsylvania; When Capitalists Collide: Business Conflict and the End of Empire in Egypt). Vitalis takes a revisionist look at U.S. corporate involvement in the founding of Saudi ARAMCO (the Saudis took control of the firm in 1980) and ARAMCO's racial hierarchies, which are similar to those existing in the oil and minefields of the United States. While ostensibly writing a work of political science, Vitalis has crafted a narrative that fits in well with the recent trend of giving U.S. history international context. Both books are recommended for academic libraries, but only Maugeri's will likely be of interest to public libraries.-John Russell, Georgia State Univ. Lib., Atlanta Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Table of Contents:

Pt. 1	A history of an unreliable market (and the bad policies it prompted)
1	John D. Rockefeller's cursed legacy	3
2	The age of gasoline and oil imperialism	19
3	The carve-up of Arabia's oil	33
4	The oil glut of the 1930s	41
5	Cold War fears and the U.S.-Arabian link	51
6	The Iran tragedy and the "seven sisters" cartel	63
7	The golden age of oil and its limits	77
8	Oil and the explosion of Arab nationalism	93
9	The first oil shock	103
10	The second oil shock	121
11	The countershock	133
12	A storm in the desert : the first Gulf crisis	145
13	The Soviet implosion and the troubled Caspian El Dorado	155
14	The collapse of oil prices and industry megamergers	169
15	The first oil crisis of the twenty-first century	183
Pt. 2	Misperceptions and problems ahead
16	Are we running out of oil?	201
17	The inner secrets of oil	207
18	The puzzle of oil reserves and production, and the quest for their control	219
19	The problems with oil quality, price, and consumption trends	233
20	Flawed forecasts, foggy alternatives to oil	247
21	Arabs, Islam, and the myth of oil security	259
App. 1	Proven reserves, production, and reserves life index of the first twenty oil countries in the world and world totals (2004)	273
App. 2	Consumption trends of the first twenty countries in the world (1980-2004)	274
App. 3	Main features of some qualities of crude oil	275
App. 4	The largest national oil companies	277
App. 5	The largest international oil companies	278