The age of oil : the mythology, history, and future of the world's most controversial resource / Leonardo Maugeri.

Includes bibliographical references (pages [311]-321) and index.

John D. Rockefeller's cursed legacy -- The age of gasoline and oil imperialism -- The carve-up of Arabia's oil -- The oil glut of the 1930s -- Cold War fears and the U.S.-Arabian link -- The Iran tragedy and the "seven sisters" cartel -- The golden age of oil and its limits -- Oil and the explosion of Arab nationalism -- The first oil shock -- The second oil shock -- The countershock -- A storm in the desert : the first gulf crisis -- The Soviet implosion and the troubled Caspian El Dorado -- The collapse of oil prices and industry megamergers -- The first oil crisis of the twenty-first century -- Are we running out of oil? -- The inner secrets of oil -- The puzzle of oil reserves and production, and the quest for their control -- The problems with oil quality, price, and consumption trends -- Flawed forecasts, foggy alternatives to oil -- Arabs, Islam, and the myth of oil security -- Appendixes. 1. Proven reserves, production, and reserves life index of the first twenty oil countries in the world and world totals (2004) ; 2. Consumption trends of the first twenty countries in the world (1980-2004) ; 3. Main features of some qualities of crude oil ; 4. The largest national oil companies ; 5. The largest international oil companies.