Publisher: Lone Star Books, Lanham, MD, U.S.A.

Publication Year: 2000

The primary colors of oil today are money (lots of it), technology (basic but demanding) and people (special ones). The colors of the rainbow can be seen in the 100+ oil producing countries. There are a dozen large petroleum producing and exporting countries. Yet most have little in their history that links them to wealth, technology and management. Corruption among the elite and governments, mismanagement and the squandering of the petroleum wealth are endemic. Culture is everything, and no other human endeavor makes this as pointedly obvious as the world of petroleum.

What was your motivation behind writing this book?

Economides: Well, first we really wanted to tell a story, pieces of which we have told many times. It is a story that needs to be told and has not been told before. We also wanted to bind together, in almost metaphysical terms, society and this particular industry because we think that the impact, influence and importance of petroleum on humanity are civilization-shaping. We wanted to stress the international side of the industry. We take this for granted and yet the fact that my co-author Ronald Oligney and I have worked in 72 countries, perhaps excessive even by oil business norms, is absolutely incomprehensible to all outside the industry.