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  • Oil: A Beginner's Guide
  • Jason P. Theriot (bio)
Oil: A Beginner's Guide. By Vaclav Smil. Oxford: One world Publications, 2008. Pp. xiii+202. $14.95.

Oil is arguably the most important substance in modern industrial society and has been for much of the past century. Its origins, chemical and geological makeup, production processes, common uses, and geopolitical influences are the topics in Vaclav Smil's latest book, Oil: A Beginner's Guide. Smil, a geography professor who is the author of several books on energy and environmental issues, has written a well-balanced, concise, and readable synthesis of oil-related facts and history.

There are five chapters. Smil begins with a discussion of oil's benefits and burdens to society. This first chapter focuses on transportation and offers a historical and comparative assessment of the different types of oil products that have fueled "prime movers" throughout the industrialized world. Smil's short section on oil and the environment hits on the main points, such as oil spills and carbon emissions, though readers interested in a more thorough treatment of this issue will be disappointed. He does, however, address the "external costs" of oil production and use—a major theme throughout the book.

In the following chapters, Smil takes the story of oil back in time to explain its prehistoric formation and subsurface migration processes. He describes oil's chemical composition and provides a short history of oil exploration, drilling, production, and refining. He also addresses the role oil has played in fostering political turmoil and social upheaval around the world. Woven throughout the narrative are stories of key individuals such as Rudolf Diesel, Erle Halliburton, and Sheikh Yamani. There are a number of useful diagrams and more than two dozen sidebars that summarize significant aspects of the story, such as petrochemical feedstocks, the supergiant Al-Ghawar oil field in Saudi Arabia, the history of drilling bits, and oil from tar sands.

Scholars will find the final chapter the most engaging. Smil asks "How long will oil last?" and offers his own interpretation of the peak oil theory and the impending energy transition. He is not convinced by forecasters who claim that oil is running out, writing that "the proponents of an imminent peak of global oil extraction disregard the role of prices, they ignore historical perspectives, and they presuppose the end of human inventiveness and adaptability" (p. 165). Smil recalls that cynics have been incorrectly predicting the end of oil for more than a century. What is more, data on oil reserves from certain producer nations have been inaccurate and often misleading. Smil is optimistic, moreover, about the potential of replacing oil with alternative energy sources and the impact this might have on the industrialized world. [End Page 256]

In Smil's view, the higher prices for alternatives will not result in the "collapse" of modern societies, in part because market prices for oil products have always been relatively low compared to the "real" costs. This is the book's most telling point and perhaps one of the most important for Smil's "beginners" to understand: historically the costs of liquid fuels paid by consumers have not recognized the higher external costs associated with environmental damage, social problems, and military expenses.

Of course a 200-page book about oil cannot possibly fit in every possible insight, but Smil comes very close. My only major criticisms are the complete absence of sources and the author's biased depiction of oil companies. Smil uses phrases such as "profiteering" and "technically and managerially inept" (p. 20) to describe the oil industry in general. This may be true and well-deserving of some major firms, especially the national oil companies, but his treatment seems one-sided. Scholars who have examined the evolution of several of the majors have shown them to be among the most innovative and successfully managed firms in the world.

Although the information in Smil's book is nothing new under the sun, his ability to condense so much detail on a broad range of topics from science to economics in such a short work is as impressive as his command of the subject matter. Students interested...

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