Oil 101

I purchased this book strictly with the intention of learning more about the trading side of the business but was very pleasantly surprised to find that it started from the very bottom of the ladder and revealed practically every essential detail of the industry. Being specifically employed in the gas industry I was skeptical at first of the value I stood to gain from reading this. But once I sank into even the first chapter I realized that a lot of gas industry practices and jargon were actually spinoffs or directly borrowed from the oil industry. The book spares no detail and takes nothing for granted as being already known or understood unless it was previously stated between its covers. It can thus be understood from the simplest level go up. Im just about halfway through but will certainly update my review once completed. I look forward to an updated version that perhaps expands some more on the world's oil balance given recent large discoveries in Brazil and Africa (East and West). Im not sure if the topic can be rightly squeezed into the same volume but a "Gas 101" might be a likewise appreciated accompaniment to this handy piece of work.I have two criticisms to give neither of which managed to diminish my inclination toward a five-star review. I guess my appreciation for the content over-rode both my cautions. Firstly, the shipping time was way too long. The book is a fast moving stock item and should at least be stocked to reduce shipout time. Secondly, the language, though simple to read at any level, is sufficiently poor in places to totally derail the flow and require you to read the same sentence twice or more. You will ultimately get the idea the author is trying to convey so I dont see this as being worth an entire star in the final rating. "Oil 101" is definitely a worthy investment rather than an expense and will aptly prime newcomers to the industry in just as much time as it takes them to read it.

I am giving you this perspective as a tax-practicing CPA in the Oil & Gas industry.I am only about halfway through this book, and the information in it is well worth the money I paid. Being early on in my career, my primary focus of learning and development has been very heavily tax-law focused. However, now that I have formed a decent foundation in that area, I am shifting my focus to better understanding the industry that I serve. I want move beyond my client information being merely numbers on spreadsheets to having a better understanding of where those numbers came from. This book is serving that purpose very well.As others have mentioned, it is a little dated, and there are some grammatical and punctuation errors throughout. I used to be a writing tutor in my college days, so I have never broken the habit of proofreading all of the time. That said, they are not so prevalent that it makes the book difficult to read and do not detract severely from the content. The dated nature of the information, while mildly limiting (I would have bought a newer version had it been available), was not a problem for me because all of the most up-to-date technologies and theories were not things I was looking to find.Would I recommend this book if you went to school to be a field or petroleum engineer? Definitely not. Am I recommending it to my coworkers who have goals similar to mine? Absolutely. They don't get my copy until I'm finished, and I will be making sure I get it back.

The nice thing about this book is that it is instructive regarding oil; I learned an enormous amount by reading it. The not-so-nice thing about this book is that it feels like a rough draft at times, perhaps hurriedly written, with typos and grammatical mistakes and word usage errors ("comprise" is used incorrectly throughout the book, except on page 277). I would have liked to see more depth of explanation in the trading portion of the book, as well as footnotes explaining and referencing some of the author's assertions. There are a few technologies that he clearly doesn't believe in, but aside from those, he is fairly circumspect.It's a solid book; if I were the author, I'd update it to include a more modern take on fracking, batteries, renewables, and electric transportation, and send it to a professional editor. Seriously, at times the errors and language made me think I had received a Chinese knockoff of a book written in English.Buy Oil 101 if you are a scientific person who follows the financial markets, but you have never worked with nor traded oil. Oil 101 isn't the be-all, end-all of books on oil, but it is a worthy place to start.