The Squeeze: Oil, Money and Greed in the 21st Century: Amazon.co.uk: Tom Bower: Books

Review

Praise for Tom Bower:

‘As a psychological profile, an exploration of personal ambition and a study of political obsession driven by religious angst, this biography is gripping.’ Daily Telegraph

‘Intensively researched but coolly critical…this remains the most thorough biography we have.’ Independent

‘What makes this worth reading is Bower’s damning indictment of Brown's main boast: his supposedly sure stewardship of the economy.’ The Times

‘A powerful book which poses serious questions.’ James Naughtie

‘Compulsively readable…essential reading.’ Norman Lamont

‘Bower gets the big strategic judgements, most admirably in his scepticism about the fashionable theory known as 'peak oil’ Sunday Times

'..there's nobody more diligent than Bower' Dominic Lawson, The Sunday Times

"a shattering critique which will leave…readers angry" The Independent

"a roller-coaster account of the past 30 years of the oil industry….he has a real sense of the drama of deal-making and deal-breaking….Bower is particularly entertaining on the vast Russian oil industry" Daily Telegraph

"a gripping and convincing account of the turbulent story of the global oil industry over the past decade…scorchingly topical….THE SQUEEZE provides the fascinating story behind the headlines…a first-rate account of where the oil industry is now and some useful pointers as to where it is going" Financial Times

"reveals brilliantly the drama behind the scenes…Bower has produced a work which will be popular and which gets the broad brushstrokes right" The Spectator

"gripping….However fast-paced, Bower cleverly keeps the action in focus…(he) builds up a brilliant picture…(and) achieves an impressively seamless continuity. He skilfully depicts accountants squeezing costs, oil majors squeezing rivals, governments squeezing the industry, directors squeezing peers from the boardroom and traders squeezing each other in the market place" TLS

Review

'A gripping and convincing account of the turbulent story of the global oil industry over the past decade!scorchingly topical!'The Squeeze' provides the fascinating story behind the headlines!a first-rate account of where the oil industry is now and some useful pointers as to where it is going' Financial Times 'Reveals brilliantly the drama behind the scenes!Bower has produced a work which will be popular and which gets the broad brushstrokes right' Spectator 'Gripping!However fast-paced, Bower cleverly keeps the action in focus !(he) builds up a brilliant picture!(and) achieves an impressively seamless continuity. He skillfully depicts accountants squeezing costs, oil majors squeezing rivals, governments squeezing the industry, directors squeezing peers from the boardroom and traders squeezing each other in the market place' TLS 'A shattering critique which will leave!readers angry' Independent 'A roller-coaster account of the past 30 years of the oil industry!he has a real sense of the drama of deal-making and deal-breaking!Bower is particularly entertaining on the vast Russian oil industry' Daily Telegraph --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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20 of 20 people found the following review helpful

Intriguing but Inaccurate? 1 Dec 2009

By George Wilton

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Saw a pre release review for this book and bought it as soon as it came out and did read it cover to cover in three days. The book covers the later period of my career in upstream oil and gas business during which I have met some of the book's central characters.

After the first twenty pages I found my increasing annoyance had turned into my correcting numerical errors in the text; where millions and billions are often mixed up or where countries are transposed with field names and so on. A proof read of the book by someone with a technical background could easily have removed these annoying errors.

But those faults did not detract from the flow of the book although I was left wondering if the non numerical statements and conclusions were sometimes as inaccurate as the numerical errors.

Nevertheless this is book is a great read for someone in or not in the world of oil and gas. The book does draw out the significant changes that have and continue to take place as the oil majors see the balance of commercial influence having all but entirely moved to the national oil companies and the trading floors.

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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful

Needs a second edition - error strewn 1 Aug 2010

By Alan Clark

Format:Paperback

good scope and plan for a book but every bit I knew about was filled with factual errors so confidence about the other bits has to be diminished. The errors were technical, historical and geographical and of the sort you'd expect a good editor to sort out. There were so many as to seriously detract from the enjoyment of the book and such that I couldn't recommend it

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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful

Informative, compulsive but flawed 22 Feb 2010

By Sarah Bates

Format:Hardcover

I am part way through this book and am really enjoying it. It is extremely accessible and informative and is a very easy read. It appears to be very well researched. The only downside is that it is poorly edited and contains quite a lot of errors that get more and more annoying as the book progresses. I would recommend this to anyone interested in understanding, at a high level, the recent history of Big Oil.

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