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The Oil and the Glory: The Pursuit of Empire and Fortune on the Caspian Sea
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Manufacturer: Random House
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 338.2728209475
EAN: 9780375506147
ISBN: 0375506144
Label: Random House
Manufacturer: Random House
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 496
Publication Date: 2007-10-23
Publisher: Random House
Release Date: 2007-10-23
Studio: Random House
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Editorial Reviews:
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Remote, forbidding, and volatile, the Caspian Sea long tantalized the world with its vast oil reserves. But outsiders, blocked by the closed Soviet system, couldn’t get to it. Then the Soviet Union collapsed, and a wholesale rush into the region erupted. Along with oilmen, representatives of the world’s leading nations flocked to the Caspian for a share of the thirty billion barrels of proven oil reserves at stake, and a tense geopolitical struggle began. The main players were Moscow and Washington–the former seeking to retain control of its satellite states, and the latter intent on dislodging Russia to the benefit of the West.
The Oil and the Glory is the gripping account of this latest phase in the epochal struggle for control of the earth’s “black gold.” Steve LeVine, who was based in the region for The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and Newsweek, weaves an astonishing tale of high-stakes political gamesmanship, greed, and scandal, set in one of the most opaque corners of the world. In LeVine’s telling, the world’s energy giants jockey for position in the rich Kazakh and Azeri oilfields, while superpowers seek to gain a strategic foothold in the region and to keep each other in check. At the heart of the story is the contest to build and operate energy pipelines out of the landlocked region, the key to controlling the Caspian and its oil. The oil pipeline that resulted, the longest in the world, is among Washington’s greatest foreign policy triumphs in at least a decade and a half.
Along the way, LeVine introduces such players as James Giffen, an American moneyman who was also the political “fixer” for oil companies eager to do business on the Caspian and the broker for Kazakhstan’s president and ministers; John Deuss, the flamboyant Dutch oil trader who won big but lost even bigger; Heydar Aliyev, the oft-misunderstood Azeri president who transcended his past as a Soviet Politburo member and masterminded a scheme to loosen Russian control over its former colonies in the Caspian region; and all manner of rogues, adventurers, and others drawn by the irresistible pull of untold riches and the possible “final frontier” of the fossil-fuel era. The broader story is of the geopolitical questions of the Caspian oil bonanza, such as whether Russia can be a trusted ally and trading partner with the West, and what Washington’s entry into this important but chaotic region will mean for its long-term stability.
In an intense and suspenseful narrative, The Oil and the Glory is the definitive chronicle of events that are understood by few, but whose political and economic impact will be both profound and lasting.
"The collapse of the Soviet Union was a big opportunity for Big Oil, whose exploits are detailed in this fast-paced work of political and economic reportage by Wall Street Journal energy correspondent LeVine.
Westerners had been sniffing for black gold in Russia and its satellites long before the empire disintegrated, notes the author. Averell Harriman, “the Harvard-trained scion of nineteenth-century robber baron Edward Harriman,” tried his hand at the business before turning to manganese mining, while Armand Hammer “became a money launderer for the Bolsheviks, sneaked cash to secret Bolshevik agents in the United States, and profited handsomely as the representative in Russia of some thirty American companies.” Hammer set the tone for the Americans who flocked to the Caspian in the first years of the Clinton presidency, which maneuvered for the construction of an east-west oil pipeline that, by reversing the old pattern of Central Asian materials going north to Russia and coming back as products for sale, “would favor the West and disfavor Russia.” Not a nice way to treat a fledgling democracy, but the oil scouts, of course, considered Russia a rival for Central-Asian resources second only to Iran, with its heartfelt and long-standing enmity toward the United States in the region and abroad. These scouts–the first among equals being LeVine’s heart-of-darkness antihero, Jim Giffen–kept their distance when Russia still had control over the area, spurning a Gorbachev-era program to allow foreign co-ownership. But they rushed to support separatist movements and encouraged ethnic and political divisions that opened the door to an even bigger share of the wealth. The tale of Giffen’s rise and fall (the latter for perhaps surprising reasons) occupies much of the later pages, but he never loses sight of the bigger picture: namely, Central Asia as oil lamp and potential powder keg in the realpolitik of the next few years.
A complex story rendered comprehensible, with much drama and intrigue."--KIRKUS
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Interesting read for understanding the present geopolitical situation in Georgia and the rest of the Caspian region
Comment: Steve Levine has an easy to read style that definitely grasps your attention. I felt as if I wanted to know what would happen next particularly as it pertained to oil agreements with foreign governments and middlemen. This book reads like a narrative unlike other books on oil which have a matter of fact tone. This one makes one feel as if you are in the story with the players in the Caspian. However, there was one part of the book that appeared to be a bit questionable in my opinion- when the author suggested that Russian intelligence was behind Omani finance minister's death. It seems that the US oil companies had more to gain from this than the Russians given that his right hand man, Deuss, was negotiating with the Russians for a transport route through its region- something which the oil companies via the US government opposed. I would say that this is the only shady area in this book. Otherwise, excellent read. Highly recommended to anyone who wants to understand the Caspian region's oil and politics and how they interrelate with one another especially as it pertains to the recent Russian/Georgian conflict.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The Oil and the Glory
Comment: The story of Caspian oil for commercial use began in the late 19th century as the value of oil surged with the development of industry and transportation. This story has been brought to life by Mr. Steve Levine in a remarkable tale that focuses on the pivotal players involved. Following the initial development of the Baku oil fields, the area assumed military importance in 2 world wars and then became cloaked under the proprietorship of the Soviet Union. It was not until the breakup of the USSR that Caspian oil became accessible to foreign development. Levine has managed to make direct contact with many of the players active in the post Soviet rush to grab a piece of the Caspian oil action. These players include senior corporate executives, national leaders, state representatives and a handful of individuals eager to cash in on the bonanza waiting to be grabbed and divided. Levine has captured their stories and created a tapestry of contemporary oil history that weaves together endless skeins of personal greed, power, and money, along with national interests of power, wealth and defense.
What could have been told as a good guy / bad guy tale is instead described as a multi-player chess game, engaged on a multi-sided board of shifting squares and re-invented principals. International state teams vie with international self-serving teams of private and public corporations. Players drop allegiances and trade sides, stakes shift with the political winds, agreements forged over months fall flat overnight. Levine circles around the table examining the team players, gathering their play books. He unveils how various deals grow and then collapse forcing the players into new rounds. It is not often that one is given an inside look at how governments and businesses "play" together to reach their aims, which are often not similar. Here we are pulled into the backrooms where such "play" takes place. This particular chapter of oil history is extremely engaging and well told. May whoever writes the next chapter do so with the clarity and detail of Mr. Levine.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Another sequel in the "Great Game"
Comment: As a third generation oilman, I found Steve Levine's book about Caspian Oil to be a must read for any petroleum industry professional that has an interest in the Caspian component of our global industry. This book serves as an excellent reference book as well as entertainment. Levine's interesting accounts of the players and government operatives that have a hand in developing another "super giant" oil and gas province is at times, quite informative and illuminating. I feel that even though the book may not be totally up to date, it nevertheless will provide a fundamental understanding of the politics and manipulations that inevitably occur when countries and world leaders jocky for their piece of the black gold. This book should also be read by so-called environmentalists and those that want a life without fossil fuels, including the 6,000 primary products that are derived from crude oil, such as plastics we humans use from cradle to grave. It would be interesting to hear intelligent arguments, for once, from the anti-oil crowd after the have fully studied our industry and how damn difficult it really is to keep the inhabitants on this planet supplied with the means to live in a modern world and not something approaching life in the caves where we all came from. It is petroleum, as well as natural gas, that help propel the earth's population into a better existance, but at the same time, when the god-given resource is mishandled and manipulated, as this book documents many such occasions, it is not hard to see why every significant war in the last century had blood and oil involved and not much has changed in this new century. The riches of the Caspian can be used for enormous benefit to populations affected or be squandered by the likes of despots and vile power mongers as this book also enlightens the reader. The Caspian resources are a temporary treasure that if handled judicially and with proper foresight, will vastly improve the lives of millions of people, but as this book points out through its endless cast of characters, accomplishing those higher goals is often quite difficult even with experienced and seasoned professionals. Steve Levine has a well written dispaatch from one of the more mysterious places on earth.
Customer Rating:
Summary: From beginning to end, a fantastic book
Comment: When I first saw this book in Borders, I didn't want to buy it. I was worried that the narrative would bog me down in "dead history" while addressing the relevant, modern day stuff in the last part of the book.
The other thing that put me off was that the dust jacket had an endorsement from Seymour Hersh on it. I don't like Hersh's style of journalism ...sensational claims, very thinly sourced. I thought that was a sign of the same problem with this book.
Having read "the Oil and the Glory," I'm happy I took a second look. It shed light on an aspect of foreign policy and US energy industry of which I had been all but oblivious. As for the "dead history," the book only spent a few opening chapters on things that happened a long time ago, and the author wrote about them in such an interesting and relevant way, I enjoyed them as much as the modern history.
There were so many different aspects of the book that enjoyed so I won't try to name them all. First, the book is a huge and very easy to digest foreign policy lesson to the reader about the oil business and its intersection with US national security.
Second, I found the way that the oil companies had to chase continuously after the oil riches rather instructive. Contrary to some people's rhetoric, the oil companies don't just have wealth handed to them. They have to work for it and take risks and sometimes, even after all that, it disappears.
Another useful part about the book is the story of UNOCAL and its flirtation with the Taliban in the late 1990s over the idea of building a pipeline crossing Afghanistan. The author shows that this was never much more than a half-crazy dream that foundered on the reality of the Taliban's fundamental barbarity and friendship with Osama Bin Laden. It's worth keeping in mind when you hear hardcore leftists like John Pilger insist that the US operations in Afghanistan were nothing more than a grab for the pipeline instead of self-defense in the aftermath of September 11.
Finally, I have some new found respect for some aspects of the Clinton administration's foreign policy. I hardly think that Clinton was a foreign affairs virtuoso, but I can't deny the fact events in the Caspian have turned out generally to the US's favor...thanks to a large degree to wise statesmanship on the part of his administration.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Brave journalism that fails as a book
Comment: This book describes events that took place over ten years ago. It deals with recent history, but it reads like journalistic reportage. This would have been fine in 2000 when Caspian oil was still the "in" thing. But events have moved on, the Caspian is different now, and this is no longer cutting-edge stuff. As usual with "reportage" (as opposed to proper history) the book is full of major and minor inaccuracies. The use of sources is very selective and hence an incomplete and subjective picture of events is given. Key characters are misrepresented or ignored. I know this because I worked in this area during the period covered by the book. Although Levine discusses the Caspian oil and gas geopolitics of the 1990s, he fails to make it a unifying theme, which would have made the book more coherent. It is a brave attempt to encompass exciting events in the recent past, but it fails to provide a definitive and elegant account. The prose is good, and sections would stand well on their own as separate articles, but the whole does not hang together. The level of detail is at times bizarre, reflecting poor editing. I read it all because I lived through the events described, but at times I wondered why anyone without a special motivation would be interested in such obscure descriptions of old oil deals and half-colorful characters.
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