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Oil on the Brain: Petroleum's Long, Strange Trip to Your Tank | 
 enlarge | Author: Lisa Margonelli
Publisher: Broadway
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
Buy New: $8.00
You Save: $6.95 (46%)
New (36) Used (18) from $6.73
Rating:  5 reviews
Sales Rank: 237170
Media: Paperback
Pages: 352
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.2 x 1.1
ISBN: 0767916972
Dewey Decimal Number: 338.27282
EAN: 9780767916974
ASIN: 0767916972
Publication Date: February 12, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Oil on the Brain is a smart, surprisingly funny account of the oil industry—the people, economies, and pipelines that bring us petroleum, brilliantly illuminating a world we encounter every day.
Americans buy ten thousand gallons of gasoline a second, without giving it much of a thought. Where does all this gas come from? Lisa Margonelli’s desire to learn took her on a one-hundred thousand mile journey from her local gas station to oil fields half a world away. In search of the truth behind the myths, she wriggled her way into some of the most off-limits places on earth: the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, the New York Mercantile Exchange’s crude oil market, oil fields from Venezuela, to Texas, to Chad, and even an Iranian oil platform where the United States fought a forgotten one-day battle.
In a story by turns surreal and alarming, Margonelli meets lonely workers on a Texas drilling rig, an oil analyst who almost gave birth on the NYMEX trading floor, Chadian villagers who are said to wander the oil fields in the guise of lions, a Nigerian warlord who changed the world price of oil with a single cell phone call, and Shanghai bureaucrats who dream of creating a new Detroit.
Deftly piecing together the mammoth economy of oil, Margonelli finds a series of stark warning signs for American drivers.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Good facts but riddled with personal opinion November 5, 2008
Colby C. Drechsel
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Lisa does an excellent job of detailing the fundamentals of the oil business. In fact, I applaud her ability to convey some of the more obscure parts of the business in simple, lay person's terminology. Unfortunately, beginning with Chapter 7 she intertwines the facts with her personal opinions often critical of leadership which she is ill-equiped by any stretch to judge. There is a certain emotional content conveyed that is humanly appealing but misleading to unsuspecting readers. This type of emotional content grounded by perception only propagates and inspires ignorance to the general public that reads her book. She should take credit for her exceptional ability to condense such a large topic into a small bounded work but it is a tragedy that such talent is lost in arrogance. The content is admirable, the reading pleasant, but the undertone is disrespectful.
 oil is important September 7, 2008
Ryan Costa (Cleveland, OH)
The title is very inspirational. Americans rely on the stuff oil is used for more than anyone else. But we don't spend much time thinking about it. Oil on the Brain tries to change that with a comprehensive exploration of what oil is and where it comes from. The geopolitics of how we "negotiate" getting it and paying for it are greatly revealed. Geopolitics are only briefly explored(war and between-war posturing)
Oil on the Brain: Petroleum's Long, Strange Trip to Your Tank September 5, 2008
Linda Stevens
Especially relevant in these days of high gasoline prices, this book is everything you ever wanted to know about gasoline. It starts at the gas station and traces back to distributor, refinery, oil rigs, etc. all the way back to the countries that supply our crude oil. The book was first published in 2007 - before prices soared. It provides a thoughtful discussion of the mechanics and politics of gasoline. It is a
"must-read" for everyone who complains about the high cost of gasoline
WHEW! August 30, 2008
James B. Johnson (HUDSON, FL United States)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
OIL ON THE BRAIN is a survey of virtually every facet of the oil market and industry, from gas station to national policies. The author spends time at each segment, collecting information, interviewing the players, and experiencing whats happening.
The book is well written, interesting, and provides a detailed overview of our friend gasoline.
Excellent resource of information August 19, 2008
Alan Poynor
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I read this book as part of a review group associated with the petroleum industry. I have over twenty years of experience in the refining industry, so most of the information this book contains in that regard held little new information. However, it's important to point out that the book also didn't contain any misinformation. My experience with production and trading is limited, so I picked up a great deal of information on those aspects. If you are not familiar with the oil and gas industries, and would like to know the "how and why" of them, I would recommend this book highly. The author not only discusses domestic (US) production and supply, but also foreign areas, such as Nigeria. In short, I think this book represents the broadest, and easiest, source of information a lay person would find useful as a starting point for exploring an industry that affects all our lives.
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