The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power - Daniel Yergin

[Liberty]

[amazonsearch]The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power[/amazonsearch]

 

For those interested in the history of the oil industry (from the 1850s onward).

 

I'm just a few hundred pages in, but so far it's excellent and I feel it deserves the Pulitzer that it received. Really interesting details about the early drillers, the first big gusher, how Standard Oil, Royal Dutch, Russian operations, the first pipelines and tankers, etc. What I find most fascinating is the various strategies and tactics used by the big players to get around one another and get an edge.

[Hielko]

Yes, it's a great book. Not an easy read though.

[Morgan]

Thanks for sharing! Just ordered it!

[Liberty]

Thanks for sharing! Just ordered it!

 

I hope you enjoy it. Please share your thoughts here once you've read it, I'm curious to know what you think of it.

[Morgan]

Thanks for sharing! Just ordered it!

 

I hope you enjoy it. Please share your thoughts here once you've read it, I'm curious to know what you think of it.

 

Will do. It may take a little while though. Just ordered a few other books too.  ;D

[Liberty]

Will do. It may take a little while though. Just ordered a few other books too.  ;D

 

No worries, I know how that is :D

 

If you don't mind sharing, what other books did you order? I'm always looking for ideas for the 'to read' list. Thanks.

[Morgan]

No worries, I know how that is :D

 

If you don't mind sharing, what other books did you order? I'm always looking for ideas for the 'to read' list. Thanks.

 

The other books I ordered:

1. The Warburgs: The Twentieth-Century Odyssey of a Remarkable Jewish Family - Ron Chernow

2. How to Lose $100,000,000 and Other Valuable Advice - Royal Little

3. The Art of Profitability - Adrian Slywotzky

 

I think all of them are recommendations from CoBF too. ;D

 

 

PS - I love Feynman's work too.

[Liberty]

The other books I ordered:

1. The Warburgs: The Twentieth-Century Odyssey of a Remarkable Jewish Family - Ron Chernow

2. How to Lose $100,000,000 and Other Valuable Advice - Royal Little

3. The Art of Profitability - Adrian Slywotzky

 

I think all of them are recommendations from CoBF too. ;D

 

 

PS - I love Feynman's work too.

 

Good picks. Warburgs is on my list, as well as many other biographies by Chernow.

 

I've added the Little book to my list. Seems interesting.

 

I have Art of Profitability but haven't read it yet. Based on a recommendation from this board, of course!

 

Thanks for sharing.

[Valueguy134]

Heard good things about the book, and I got it for only a penny on Amazon.  You should also check out Oil 101 by Morgan Downey.

[Liberty]

Heard good things about the book, and I got it for only a penny on Amazon.  You should also check out Oil 101 by Morgan Downey.

 

Thanks for the suggestion.

 

Another that is on my list is The Frackers by Gregory Zuckerman.

[Morgan]

Heard good things about the book, and I got it for only a penny on Amazon.  You should also check out Oil 101 by Morgan Downey.

 

Thanks for the suggestion.

 

Another that is on my list is The Frackers by Gregory Zuckerman.

 

The Frackers was good. I just finished a month or so ago. The story about the original fracking guys is awesome. They are serious entrepreneurs, who took huge risks and were rewarded very, very well. The only thing that bothered me was I noticed a number or grammatical errors in the first quarter of the book (not that I never make mistakes). The author is a NYT writer I believe. Those kinds of mistakes shouldn't be in a published book.

[fareastwarriors]

Heard good things about the book, and I got it for only a penny on Amazon.  You should also check out Oil 101 by Morgan Downey.

 

Thanks for the suggestion.

 

Another that is on my list is The Frackers by Gregory Zuckerman.

 

The Frackers was good. I just finished a month or so ago. The story about the original fracking guys is awesome. They are serious entrepreneurs, who took huge risks and were rewarded very, very well. The only thing that bothered me was I noticed a number or grammatical errors in the first quarter of the book (not that I never make mistakes). The author is a NYT writer I believe. Those kinds of mistakes shouldn't be in a published book.

 

He writes for the Wall Street Journal. I thought his other book The Greatest Trade Ever was also pretty good.

[Liberty]

I've just found out that there's a 8-part TV miniseries that exists based on The Prize.

 

Has anyone seen it? Is it good?

[Eng12345]

Found this book by trawling through the forum and got it on Amazon for $6. 

 

Phenomenal $6 spent. I'm about halfway through it. Thought I'd bump the post. 

 

Also curious if anyone has read the sequels by Yergin?

 

The Prize seemingly stops somewhere in the mid '80s or so. 

The Quest seems to pick up around there and go to the mid 00s 

The New Map seems to cover the shale revolution to the early 10's when it was published

 

Not sure if any of the sequels are worth the read...

 

 

[Xerxes]

20 hours ago, Eng12345 said:

Found this book by trawling through the forum and got it on Amazon for $6. 

 

Phenomenal $6 spent. I'm about halfway through it. Thought I'd bump the post. 

 

Also curious if anyone has read the sequels by Yergin?

 

The Prize seemingly stops somewhere in the mid '80s or so. 

The Quest seems to pick up around there and go to the mid 00s 

The New Map seems to cover the shale revolution to the early 10's when it was published

 

Not sure if any of the sequels are worth the read...

 

 

I have read them all. 
 

The Prize is a phenomenal history books above everything else. 
 

I actually didn’t enjoy New Map, and I think I posted my comment in this board.  
 

The Quest was good read. In between the two. 
 

The other book that you didn’t mention that he wrote is called “The Commanding Heights”. Nothing to do with oil but rather on how either the state or private sector took control of the economy and how that transition happened or didn’t happen. Covers the whole globe. 

[schin]

5 hours ago, Xerxes said:

I have read them all. 
 

The Prize is a phenomenal history books above everything else. 
 

I actually didn’t enjoy New Map, and I think I posted my comment in this board.  
 

The Quest was good read. In between the two. 
 

The other book that you didn’t mention that he wrote is called “The Commanding Heights”. Nothing to do with oil but rather on how either the state or private sector took control of the economy and how that transition happened or didn’t happen. Covers the whole globe. 

 

@Xerxes @Eng12345 - Do any of the books help you value or understand some recent investments in oil? Or any other supporting companies?

[Xerxes]

3 hours ago, schin said:

 

@Xerxes @Eng12345 - Do any of the books help you value or understand some recent investments in oil? Or any other supporting companies?

 

Not for me. I have been reading history books long before I got into investing. 
 

I would say it is investing that has made reading history books immensely more valuable. 

[Eng12345]

Yeah I don't know. I think it's important to have historical frameworks for various industries. These experiences shape the way the current leaders of industries operate.

 

So in that sense, it is certainly helpful. History rhymes after all.  

 

But as far as valuing businesses? Meh. You're gonna have to crack the 10K. And if you're asking my opinion on oil? Hell, I don't know. I have limited shares in strathcona (I sold the cost basis on the fall pop) and some VG (which is obv a LNG play and has a good chance of being a 0).  

[Eng12345]

@Xerxes did you enjoy The Commanding Heights ? I saw that one but wasn't terribly appealed to it. 

 

I am learning to be unforgiving with my reading time otherwise I get nowhere. I certainly enjoy Yergin's style, but it is dense in minutia at times. 

[schin]

1 hour ago, Xerxes said:

 

Not for me. I have been reading history books long before I got into investing. 
 

I would say it is investing that has made reading history books immensely more valuable. 

 

@Xerxes @Eng12345 - When I read "Dark Side of Fortune", it showed how one can use the government to protect foreign (oil) assets by Edward Doheny.

 

Yes, history does rhyme a lot -- so it helps my investing models.

 

A year ago, I read a book on Masa Son of Softbank fame and it pretty much told him his thoughts on ARM Holdings, pre-IPO and how he sizes bets.

 

Also, when I read "The Founders" by Jimmy Soni -- I got background of Palantir and also, their guesstimate on PayPal's fair value and how hard it is to get into fintech...which informed my thoughts on moats in banking/financial industries. 

 

Just looking for tidbits here and there... Sometimes, it's just a random paragraph here and there.

 

Also, as a side note, in reading "Dark Side of Fortune" -- I was amazed at how many time Teddy Roosevelt shows ups. He's a baller.

[Suri22]

I read the first 100 pages and put it down, it’s been a fascinating read so far if you want to understand how the oil industry came about

Edited January 26 by Suri22
grammer