The Prize

[Tex]

The Prize (by Daniel Yergin) is a Pulitzer Prize winning history of the oil business from 1859 to the 1st Gulf War. It is a long piece but good. I judged its accuracy by its treatment of my home (East Texas Oil Field), the history of which I know quite well. It was accurate in all respects, as far as I can tell. The book details the history of the business, from geology to technology to politics. It explains how OPEC was patterned after the Texas Railroad Commission and how Saudi Arabia has come to occupy the "swing producer" seat that Texas was in pre-1972. A good read with some unusual characters. The role of oil in WW2 is fascinating.

[luckyhedo]

Also, as I recall the book stated that the OPEC style supply and price controls were originally legislated by the U.S. Congress to help regulate and to bring some order to the industry in the U.S.

I guess that once that Genie was out it could not be put back into the bottle/barrel.. ;D

LOU

[Tex]

The said:

Also, as I recall the book stated that the OPEC style supply and price controls were originally legislated by the U.S. Congress to help regulate and to bring some order to the industry in the U.S.

I guess that once that Genie was out it could not be put back into the bottle/barrel.. ;D

LOU

I believe that rather than Congress, it was the Texas Railroad Commission, who up until 1972, in effect controlled domestic prices by setting "allowables". Similar bodies in Louisiana and Oklahoma acted in concert and this was enough to keep the markets stable. This mechanism was set up in the late thirties with the acquisence of Secretary of Interior Harold Ickes after the East Texas Field discovery flooded the market and brought oil down as low as a nickel a barrel, devastating domestic producers.

[luckyhedo]

It is also a great documentary:

www.imdb.com/title/tt0278873/

LOU