Paul Sabin. Crude Politics: The California Oil Market, 1900-1940. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004. xx + 307 pp. ISBN 0-520-24198-3, $39.95 (cloth).

Champions of the oil industry have long claimed that oil isthe cheapest form of energy. Why is it so cheap? The conventionalanswer emphasizes oil’s natural abundance and the wondersof market supply and demand. Most historians who study the industryat least implicitly accept this explanation. But is not resourceabundance a socially constructed concept? Can we so easily isolatemarket forces from politics and government policy in explainingthe cost and price of oil? These     

The foreign trade of the OPEC states

The changes brought about in the OPEC states by their oil are reflected most clearly in the foreign trade¹. How did their trade develop during the present decade? What will be the outcome of the latest drastic oil price increases?     

Tight supply keeps oil prices soaring

While there has been no further increase in the price of industrial commodities this year, oil prices recovered from a temporary decline to reach record levels. Does the oil producers' new-found unity mean a farewell to low oil prices?     

Gabriel Tortella, Alfonso Ballestero, and Jose Luis Diaz Fernandez. Del monopolio al libre mercado: La historia de la industria petrolera espanola [From Monopoly to the Free Market: A History of the Spanish Oil Industry]. Madrid, Spain: LID Editorial Empresarial S.L., 2003. 632 pp. ISBN 8-488-71732-6, X23.08.

What interest can there be in the history of the petroleum industryof a country without oil, such as Spain? Can the lack of hydrocarbonsbe considered the main cause of its economic retardation? Thediscussion and the confutation of these two questions, whichopen the introduction, represent the subtle thread that runsthroughout this book. The volume reconstructs in very detailed and precise ways thehistory of the oil sector in Spain in     

Oil prices decline as concerns about supplies lessen

Expectations of shorter oil supplies in the case of a war in the Middle East pushed crude oil prices upwards for many months, but in March prices started to fall significantly even before the war against Iraq had started. Does the price peak lie behind us, and can oil consumers even hope — after the war — for a prolonged period of low oil prices?     

The power of the oil countries

What will be the consequences of the oil producing countries’ strong market position for these states themselves as well as for the industrial nations relying on the inflow of oil?     

Alison Fleig Frank. Oil Empire: Visions of Prosperity in Austrian Galicia. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2005. xx + 343 pp. ISBN 0-674-01887-7, $49.95.

Dirt poor agrarian Galicia an oil empire? How did I miss that?Driven by incredulity to the Habsburg and Polish histories onmy shelves, I found barely a sentence on oil in any of them.No wonder once eastern Galicia fell to Ukraine after the SecondWorld War, behind the Soviet border proper, this colorful andinstructive chapter in the history of Austria and Poland, ofmyriad Poles, Ukrainians, Jews, Germans, Canadians, and otheractors lay dormant. That is, until Alison Fleig Frank came along. Her pioneeringand     

Oil Market at a Turning Point?

Crude oil prices have fallen markedly during recent months, so much so that the OPEC countries finally took action and resolved to curb production levels. Is the oil market becoming accustomed to ongoing geopolitical risks, and are oil price developments now being more strongly determined by fundamental market data once again?     

The petrodollars and the world economy

The quadrupling of the oil price by the OPEC in 1973 was a poignant event in the post-war development of the world economy. Which measures and mechanisms conduced to the international income redistribution necessitated by the hoisting of the oil prices in the past five years?     

The internationalization of energy supply structures

The World Energy Conference will be held in Munich in mid-September. It will have to deal with diverse and complex problems of energy policy, for the seventies have presented tremendous challenges in the energy field. The control over oil—with 46% of the world supply still by far the most important source of energy—has been reorganized and two oil crises have exposed the flow of supplies to severe disruption and political hazards. As far as can be foreseen, the supply is unlikely to keep abreast of the world-wide rise of energy consumption. To replace the oil gradually will therefore be the major task in the energy field in the coming decades. What will be the supply position between now and the year 2000? And which structural changes will have to be effected?     

The middle east and the EEC: An analysis of trade flows

The Middle East has become the largest external supplier of imports to the European Community, and is also the EC's largest export market. Rising oll prices have not only affected the value of EC imports from the Middle East, but have also ultimately determined the ability of the Middle Eastern states to pay for Community exports. What are the prospects for the continuing growth of trade between the Community and the Middle East? What would be the effect of a fall in oil prices or of a decline in the EC's dependence on Middle Eastern oil?     

Global Upturn Shaping Germany’s Economy

The global economy is currently in a phase of sustained growth. Will higher oil prices have a dampening effect on the world economy? Has the risk of inflation increased so much that monetary policy needs to be tightened more than so far anticipated? Are there any signs that global economic imbalances are being corrected?      

Oil from Chinese deposits

From 18–25 March the United Nations’ “International Meeting on Petroleum Geology” will take place in China, a country whose oil reserves up to the mid-sixties had been judged by foreign observers to be minute and the development of her oil sector of no major importance. Today, with an annual crude output of 106 mn tons, China already ranks ninth among the world’s oil producers. And, with the prospect of a further advance towards leadership among producers and exporters of the coveted energy material, the West is showing growing interest in China’s energy potential. How real is this prospect?     

Production cuts to support oil prices

Most commodity quotations have continued to fall in recent months as a result of the weaker global economy. Crude oil prices, on the other hand, had been maintained at the high level targeted by OPEC since the start of the year, but lately they, too, have started to fall. Is the success of the oil exporters' change in production policy built to last?     

Causes of the growth crisis in the EC countries and strategies for overcoming it

Whereas in 1970 most of the large EC countries were still recording real growth rates in excess of 5%, after the two oil crises there was an appreciable slowdown in economic expansion and at the beginning of the eighties even a real contraction. At the same time unemployment increased dramatically. Where do the causes of the crisis lie? What strategies promise success in overcoming it?     

Relaxation on the oil market

While the prices of industrial commodities have risen only slowly, oil prices reached their highest level for nine years in early March. Can their more recent decline be expected to continue over the medium term?     

Weaker world economy

Last year's marked slowdown in the world economy, which followed a phase of very rapid expansion, has led to fears that a recessionary climate may be at hand. A key role in this is played by economic trends in the USA. How reliant is the rest of the world on the tractive power of what has up to now been the engine of economic growth? is the drop in oil prices sufficient to stabilise economic activity?     

The non-oil developing countries and OPEC: Coalition or conflict?

For a time in the mid-1970s, “Third World solidarity” was at its zenith and the prospect of a new international economic order appeared to be within reach. But by the Cancun Summit in 1981 the schism between the oil exporting developing countries and the non-oil exporting developing countries had become apparent. What are the determinants of relationships between these two groups of countries? What are the prospects for the second half of the 1980s?     

Government influence on energy prices

There is now widespread agreement that, in the interest of energy conservation and substitution of oil, consumer prices for energy should reflect world market prices while taking account of longer-term trends. Are the energy policies of the major industrialised countries in conformity with this demand?     

Ten years after the first oil crisis— OPEC's past and future

In October 1973 OPEC sprang the first “oil shock” on the oil-importing countries. The member states took over the pricing of their petroleum and within three months prices had climbed to an unprecedented level. Only then did OPEC impress itself upon the public consciousness, although the organisation had been set up as long ago as 1960. Now, ten years later, the continuing oil glut has created the most difficult situation the organisation has faced since its inception. Is OPEC now slipping from the position it won in the seventies?