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Petroleum Economics: Issues and Strategies of Oil and Natural Gas Production by ROGNVALDUR HANNESSON. (Westport, CT: Quorum Books, 1998), 163 pages. ISBN 1-56720-220-9.
This is a short book of high quality. Rognvaldur Hannesson prepared it from a course in petroleum economics he has given for several years at the Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration. Chapter 1 reviews the vital role of oil in industrial countries. Hannesson rightly states "Oil in modernsociety is like blood in the human body. Without itmodernsociety as we know it would cease to exist. " Chapter 2 discusses world markets for oil, natural gas, and coal. Here Hannesson analyses substitution among fossil fuels induced by changes in their relative prices. He reviews world trade in oil and gas, and the heavy dependence of the United States, Western Europe, and Pacific Asia on imported oil. Of course the ,,fiddle East is the largest oil exporting region, followed by Africa and the Former Soviet Union. The international market for natural gas is much smaller than that for oil, and Hannesson explains why. He also reviews the geographic distribution of oil and gas reserves and production. In 1996, the Middle Eastern countries held 65% of the world's oil reserves, North America...