Crude World: The Violent Twilight of Oil
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Crude World: The Violent Twilight of Oil Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

Peter Maass (Author), Dominic Hoffman (Narrator), Random House Audio (Publisher)
4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 42 ratings
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A stunning and revealing examination of oil's indelible impact on the countries that produce it and the people who possess it.

Every unhappy oil-producing nation is unhappy in its own way, but all are touched by the "resource curse"—the power of oil to exacerbate existing problems and create new ones. In Crude World, Peter Maass presents a vivid portrait of the troubled world oil has created. He takes us to Saudi Arabia, where officials deflect inquiries about the amount of petroleum remaining in the country's largest reservoir; to Equatorial Guinea, where two tennis courts grace an oil-rich dictator's estate but bandages and aspirin are a hospital's only supplies; and to Venezuela, where Hugo Chávez's campaign to redistribute oil wealth creates new economic and political crises.

Maass, a New York Times Magazine writer, also introduces us to Iraqi oilmen trying to rebuild their industry after the invasion of 2003, an American lawyer leading Ecuadorians in an unprecedented lawsuit against Chevron, a Russian oil billionaire imprisoned for his defiance of Vladimir Putin's leadership, and Nigerian villagers whose livelihoods are destroyed by the discovery of oil. Rebels, royalty, middlemen, environmentalists, indigenous activists, CEOs—their stories, deftly and sensitively presented, tell the larger story of oil in our time.

Crude World is a startling and essential account of the consequences of our addiction to oil.

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  1. Listening Length
    9 hours and 6 minutes
  2. Author
    Peter Maass
  3. Narrator
    Dominic Hoffman
  4. Audible release date
    September 29, 2009
  5. Language
    English
  6. Publisher
    Random House Audio
  7. ASIN
    B002QX7S9A
  8. Version
    Unabridged
  9. Program Type
    Audiobook
  10. See all details
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Product details

Listening Length 9 hours and 6 minutes
Author Peter Maass
Narrator Dominic Hoffman
Whispersync for Voice Ready
Audible.com Release Date September 29, 2009
Publisher Random House Audio
Program Type Audiobook
Version Unabridged
Language English
ASIN B002QX7S9A
Best Sellers Rank #293,767 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals)
#93 in Power Resource Engineering
#222 in Business Ethics (Audible Books & Originals)
#330 in Fossil Fuels

Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars
4.2 out of 5
42 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

M. Grady
5.0 out of 5 stars How overdependence leads to dire consequences
Reviewed in the United States on November 2, 2009
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A rewardingly insightful, enjoyably well-written, quick read; this book is about how the lives of those who live above oil, and logically should profit from its implicit wealth, are almost always excluded from the spoils due to an inevitable economic over-dependence, mismanagement, cronyism, and simply greed. More often than not, it's poverty and squalor for those unfortunate enough to live above the resource. The author travels the world and gets up close with first-hand accounts that left me with a much more intimate, much less abstract understanding, of what it's like for the people living in the shadows of oil.

Additionally, this is not necessarily a book on the long term environmental impact on the planet (though some mention is inevitable and justifiably necessary). Nor is it a peak oil book. That said, I walked away more convinced than ever that a much more diverse and much cleaner energy industry be developed, quickly, for the benefit of everyone on the planet. I'd highly recommend it to anyone.
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Amazon Customer
4.0 out of 5 stars I liked the book but it is highly emotional
Reviewed in the United States on September 30, 2010
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Curiously this book starts out discussing the issue of how much oil is left, specifically in Saudi Arabia but then switches gears to document a whole series of cases studies in which oil has been a negative influence rather than a positive one on many of the countries where it has been found. Examples include Equatorial Guinea, Ecuador, Venezuela, Russia, Some of the Former Soviet Republics, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and others. Books like this that required field research by authors often produce very interesting anecdotes and stories about places many people never hear about, and in that sense, this book definitely doesn't disappoint. Sadly, many of the stories about graft, despotism, theft of national resources, bribes and accidents in the oil industry will probably not be much of a revelation to most readers. It is at the same time a triumph of the book and a shortcoming that the author has managed to present such an emotional view on the evils of oil. It certainly helps personalize it for many people who probably fill up their car without any thought or knowledge of where the oil comes from. On the other hand, his characterization tends to present a gloomy, almost dystopian view of many of these countries. I think the book is most definitely a useful primer on the seedier sides of oil production, but I would hope that readers of it would not take the vignettes presented here as a general characterization of the countries in question. In some cases, such as Equatorial Guinea, oil may actually be more or less the only show in town. In others, such as Venezuela or Russia, oil is only a part of multifaceted and complex cultures and economies. Overall, I really liked this book and found it to be a real page turner as well as one of those books that points out a lot of clever ways of viewing things. Oil production is a topic that is starting to get a bit saturated in the book industry, but this one still manages to be fairly fresh.
2 people found this helpful
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J. Watts
5.0 out of 5 stars A Wakeup Call - If we're listening...
Reviewed in the United States on September 30, 2009
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"We're addicted to oil," said George W. Bush, as though that was some kind of revelation. Well, it actually might be to most Americans. If asked, the majority of the public would probably say they only use oil to fuel their car or heat their home. In fact, oil is the essential ingredient in 100% of all our possessions, and most of our activities. No food is eaten without massive oil inputs. No iPods or flat screen TV's entertain us without oil to make them, deliver them, and fuel them. Even if we all biked to work, the roads themselves are made of oil.

If we actually stop to think about it, our oil need is beyond an addiction, for if the will is there, a junkie can be weaned from his fix. Oil is more like the water a fish swims in, so familiar and so necessary, it's not even noticed. Or, as Peter Maass says in his outstanding book Crude World, oil is oxygen.

In the U.S., we consume 21 million barrels of oil a day, but we produce only about 9 million. The rest comes from other countries - many of which are not our friends, and are not democracies. It is this foreign supply of our daily fix that gets the bulk of Maass's scrutiny, and it's an eye-opener, to say the least, because oil has a paradoxical way of making the people who live in most countries that export it poorer, not richer; the oil curse, as it's called.

With their slick corporate PR campaigns (BP - "Beyond Petroleum") and unlimited lobbying budgets, the oil companies are able to project a high-tech, consumer-friendly image as benign providers of clean energy. That may be mostly true in the United States, with its advanced legal, political, and regulatory system. But what happens to these ostensibly fine corporate citizens when they can extract oil in poor third world countries? Here Peter Maass blows the lid off their carefully contrived corporate image, with intimate and devastating personal portraits of exploitation in action. Maass blithely walks into the most dangerous civil wars, jungles, and guerrilla training camps to show countries like Equatorial Guinea, where a tiny fraction of the population aligned with the brutal dictator Teodoro Obiang skim virtually the entire gross revenues of the country, while the remaining people live in filth. To ensure their continued access to the country's riches, ExxonMobil, Marathon Oil, Chevron, and others treat Obiang as a valued friend and enlightened leader. U.S. officials like Condoleeza Rice treat him as a confidante, and our own banks help him launder his plundered wealth.

And that's only one story. Maass takes us around the world as the story changes and fascinates, but the conclusions are the same. Crude World is a cook's tour of the devil's kitchen, and is too riveting to put down. Every American should read it, and know where his daily fix really comes from. We can't get off of oil today, but we might just move a little bit faster if we think about how many people have to starve for us to fill our SUV's.
17 people found this helpful
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J. Lien
5.0 out of 5 stars Oil = problems
Reviewed in the United States on July 3, 2010
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Oil (and the collective worldwide thirst for it) creates many more problems than it solves. This book is a well-timed expose on the profound deleterious effects of oil on societies....and this includes much more than the environmental damage. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn more about the future crisis and the many problems the world will face with a dwindling oil supply and production capacity. The stunning realization is the extreme urgency with which we as a society need to look for alternative forms of energy.
2 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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Raphael
5.0 out of 5 stars top
Reviewed in Germany on December 9, 2012
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zufällig entdeckt und voll überzeugt: mit Kenntnis und Kompetenz beschreibt Maass die Verstrickungen zwischen Politik und Ölindustrie sowie die damit verbundenen Konsequenzen für Menschen und ökologische Systeme in diversen Fällen. Ein 'muß' für alle, die sich über die Gründe für den Stillstand bei der Energiewende und dem globalen Umweltschutz informieren wollen.
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Miriana Ponte
4.0 out of 5 stars Real world intriges
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 21, 2010
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I bought this book for a friend who has spent a lifetime in politics and international trade and he tells me it is interesting and well-written. Better than that ....
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Philip Nelson
3.0 out of 5 stars Anecdotal
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 23, 2010
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This anecdotal book is fine as far as it goes, but it doesn't really address its own subtitle. Maybe that's not so much a fault of the author as the fact that oil and gas are still in plentiful supply - and undiminished demand. It will be some time before the "Twilight" arrives, and just how violent it is when it comes will be determined then. It's not a bad read, but not an earth-shaker!
3 people found this helpful
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Matt
3.0 out of 5 stars average read but nothing insightful
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 12, 2014
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I work in the O&G industry and this book came reccomended by a colleague, overall its a good read but the ending is rather abrupt and left me wanting a much better conclusion
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