The Petroleum Industry

The petroleum industry is unique: it is an industry without which modern civilization would collapse. Despite the advances in alternative energy, petroleum’s role is still central. Petroleum still drives economics, geopolitics, and sometimes war. The history of petroleum is, to some measure, the history of the modern world. This book represents a concise but complete one-volume reference on the history of the petroleum industry from pre-modern times to the present day, covering all aspects of business, technology, and geopolitics. The book also presents an analysis of the future of petroleum, and a highly useful set of statistical graphs. Anyone interested in the history, status, and outlook for petroleum will find this book a uniquely valuable first place to look. This new second edition incorporates all the revolutionary changes in the petroleum landscape since the first edition was published, including the boom in extraction of oil and gas from shale formations using techniques such as fracking and horizontal drilling. This second edition of Historical Dictionary of the Petroleum Industry contains a chronology, an introduction, appendixes, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 500 cross-referenced entries on companies, people, events, technologies, countries, provinces, cities, and regions related to the history of the world’s petroleum industry. This book is an excellent resource for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about the petroleum industry.

Taking the case of the Norwegian petroleum industry as its vantage point, the book discusses the question of industrial transformations in resource-based industries. The book presents new, empirically-based analyses of the development of the petroleum industry, with an emphasis on three ongoing transformation processes: Technological upgrading and innovation in upstream petroleum. Globalisation of the petroleum industry and suppliers’ experiences of entering foreign markets. Diversification into and out of petroleum – and the potential for new growth paths after oil. Drawing together a range of key thinkers in this field, this volume addresses the ways in which the petroleum industry and its supply industry has changed since the turn of the millennium. It provides recommendations for the development of resource economies in general and petroleum economies in particular. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of energy policy and economics, natural resource management, innovation studies and the politics of the oil and gas sector.

Winner of the 2014 Book of the Year Award from the Petroleum History Society!The importance of energy to the functioning of any economy has meant that energy industries are amongst the most regulated of industries. What might appear to be purely private decisions are made within a complex and evolving web of government regulations. Petropolitics: Petroleum Development, Markets and Regulations, Alberta as an Illustrative History provides an economic history of the petroleum industry in Alberta as well as a detailed analysis of the operation of the markets for Alberta oil and natural gas, and the main governmental regulations (apart from environmental regulations) faced by the industry. The tools used within this study are applicable to oil and gas industries throughout the world.

Safety in Petroleum Industries covers pertinent safety aspects and precautions to be taken for design, operation, maintenance, inspection and project constructions for petroleum industries, with an emphasis on petroleum refineries. Relevant practical knowledge and experience contributing to safe and sustained operation of the industry has been compiled with all necessary references. Identified areas where theoretical inputs are required have also been incorporated. Learning objectives for the petroleum industries have been identified and discussed in an organized manner based on author’s more than thirty-five years of experience in petroleum and chemical industries. Aimed at practicing engineers in upstream and downstream petroleum industries, this book: Covers safety tips for operation of petroleum industries Documents design codes, tools and practices including safe operating practices of different equipment and safety procedures in a single source Includes detailed safety procedures like HAZOP, Safety Audit, management safety review, and process safety management Contains dedicated chapters on Fire Fighting, and Industrial Hygiene and Ergonomics Discusses first-hand experienced examples and burning issues in the petroleum industry

The world as we have known it for the past century would have been very different without petroleum. Petroleum, particularly in the form of crude oil and its refined products, has been central to all aspects of modern industrial society and has been a major strategic geopolitical objective for nations. The 20th century was the age of oil, and at least part of the 21st century will be as well. Petroleum is used as an energy source and as a raw material for the production of an immense variety of chemicals and synthetic materials. Almost all the world's food relies on petroleum for fertilizer, pesticides, cultivation, or transport. Petroleum has been particularly dominant as a source of transportation fuels, an application for which cost-effective substitutes will be especially difficult to find. The A to Z of the Petroleum Industry presents a concise but complete one-volume reference on the history of the petroleum industry from pre-modern times to the present day. This is done through a chronology, an introductory essay, and over 400 cross-referenced dictionary entries on companies, people, places, events, technologies, and phenomena related to the history of the world's petroleum industry. Anyone interested in the history, status, and outlook for the petroleum industry will find this book a uniquely valuable source.

Why have democratic governments failed to take serious steps to reduce carbon emissions despite dire warnings and compelling evidence of the profound and growing threat posed by global warming? Most of the writing on global warming is by scientists, academics, environmentalists, and journalists. Kevin Taft, a former leader of the opposition in Alberta, brings a fresh perspective through the insight he gained as an elected politician who had an insider's eyewitness view of the role of the oil industry. His answer, in brief: The oil industry has captured key democratic institutions in both Alberta and Ottawa. Taft begins his book with a perceptive observer's account of a recent court casein Ottawa which laid bare the tactics and techniques of the industry, its insiders and lobbyists. He casts dramatic new light on exactly how corporate lobbyists, politicians, bureaucrats, universities, and other organizations are working together to pursue the oil industry's agenda. He offers a brisk tour of the recent work of scholars who have developed the concepts of the deep state and institutional capture to understand how one rich industry can override the public interest. Taft views global warming and weakened democracy as two symptoms of the same problem — the loss of democratic institutions to corporate influence and control. He sees citizen engagement and direct action by the public as the only response that can unravel big oil's deep state.

Separation processesâ€"or processes that use physical, chemical, or electrical forces to isolate or concentrate selected constituents of a mixtureâ€"are essential to the chemical, petroleum refining, and materials processing industries. In this volume, an expert panel reviews the separation process needs of seven industries and identifies technologies that hold promise for meeting these needs, as well as key technologies that could enable separations. In addition, the book recommends criteria for the selection of separations research projects for the Department of Energy's Office of Industrial Technology.

The history of the European oil and gas industry reflects local as well as global political events, economic constraints and the personal endeavours of individual petroleum geoscientists as much as it does the development of technologies and the underlying geology of the region. The first commercial oil wells in Europe were drilled in Poland in 1853, Romania in 1857, Germany in 1859 and Italy in 1860. The 23 papers in this volume focus on the history and heritage of the oil and gas industry in the key European oil-producing countries from the earliest onshore drilling to its development into the modern industry that we know today. The contributors chronicle the main events and some of the major players that shaped the industry in Europe. The volume also marks several important anniversaries, including 150 years of oil exploration in Poland and Romania, the centenary of the drilling of the first oil well in the UK and 50 years of oil production from onshore Spain.