The Oil Age in Perspective

Abstract

The main aim of this book has been to evaluate the world’s resources of oil and gas, and their distribution by country. It is a difficult task because of lax reporting standards and ambiguous definitions, yet it is an important issue given the central place of these energy supplies in the modern world. From this standpoint it seemed useful to try to place the Oil Age in an historical context both by country and for the world as a whole. History in turn leads to current affairs, in which oil and gas supply appear to be increasingly important elements. Such an evaluation suggests that there are several sensitive and as yet ill-defined factors influencing the current political situation, but speculation on their nature has been omitted from this edition in the interests of diplomacy.