The Offshore Imperative

The Offshore Imperative
Author: Tyler Priest
Publisher: Texas A&M University Press
Total Pages: 337
Release: 2009-10-12
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1603441565

After World War II, the discovery and production of onshore oil in the United States faced decline. As a result, offshore prospects in the Gulf of Mexico took on new strategic value. Shell Oil Company pioneered many of the early moves offshore and continues to lead the way into “deepwater.” Tyler Priest’s study is the first time the modern history of Shell Oil has been told in any detail. Drawing on interviews with Shell retirees and many other sources, Priest relates how the imagination, talent, and hard work of personnel at all levels shaped the evolution of the company. The narrative also covers important aspects of Shell Oil’s corporate evolution, but the company’s pioneering steps into the deepwater fields of the Gulf of Mexico are its signature achievement. Priest’s study demonstrates that engineers did not suddenly create methods for finding and producing oil and gas from astounding water depths. Rather, they built on a half-century of accumulated knowledge and improvements to technical systems. Shell Oil’s story is unique, but it also illuminates the modern history of the petroleum industry. As Priest demonstrates, this company’s experiences offer a starting point for examining the understudied topics of strategic decision-making, scientific research, management of technology, and corporate organization and culture within modern oil companies, as well as how these activities applied to offshore development. “. . . tells a dramatic story of imaginative businessmen and engineers who propelled Shell forward in the search for ways to locate and recover oil from the depths of the sea.”—Southwestern Historical Quarterly “This book’s narrative is sustained throughout by easily understood explanations of the technical details of drilling and production.”—Journal of Southern History

The Global Interior

The Global Interior
Author: Megan Black
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 236
Release: 2018-10-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 0674989600

Winner of the George Perkins Marsh Prize Winner of the Stuart L. Bernath Prize Winner of the W. Turrentine Jackson Award Winner of the British Association of American Studies Prize “Extraordinary...Deftly rearranges the last century and a half of American history in fresh and useful ways.” —Los Angeles Review of Books “A smart, original, and ambitious book. Black demonstrates that the Interior Department has had a far larger, more invasive, and more consequential role in the world than one would expect.” —Brian DeLay, author of War of a Thousand Deserts When considering the story of American power, the Department of the Interior rarely comes to mind. Yet it turns out that a government agency best known for managing natural resources and operating national parks has constantly supported America’s imperial aspirations. Megan Black’s pathbreaking book brings to light the surprising role Interior has played in pursuing minerals around the world—on Indigenous lands, in foreign nations, across the oceans, even in outer space. Black shows how the department touted its credentials as an innocuous environmental-management organization while quietly satisfying America’s insatiable demand for raw materials. As presidents trumpeted the value of self-determination, this almost invisible outreach gave the country many of the benefits of empire without the burden of a heavy footprint. Under the guise of sharing expertise with the underdeveloped world, Interior scouted tin sources in Bolivia and led lithium surveys in Afghanistan. Today, it promotes offshore drilling and even manages a satellite that prospects for Earth’s resources from outer space. “Offers unprecedented insights into the depth and staying power of American exceptionalism...as generations of policymakers sought to extend the reach of U.S. power globally while emphatically denying that the United States was an empire.” —Penny Von Eschen, author of Satchmo Blows Up the World “Succeeds in showing both the central importance of minerals in the development of American power and how the realities of empire could be obscured through a focus on modernization and the mantra of conservation.” —Ian Tyrrell, author of Crisis of the Wasteful Nation

New Order and Progress

New Order and Progress
Author: Ben Ross Schneider
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 329
Release: 2016-02-12
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0190462906

Ben Ross Schneider's volume, New Order and Progress takes a thorough look at the political economy of Brazil. The distinctive perspective of the 11 chapters is historical, comparative, and theoretical. Collectively, the chapters offer sobering insight into why Brazil has not been the rising economic star of the BRIC that many predicted it would be, but also documents the gains that Brazil has made toward greater equality and stability. The book is grouped into four parts covering Brazil's development strategy, governance, social change, and political representation. The authors -18 leading experts from Brazil and the United States - analyze core issues in Brazil's evolving political economy, including falling inequality, the new middle class, equalizing federalism, the politicization of the federal bureaucracy, resurgent state capitalism, labor market discrimination, survival of political dynasties, the expansion of suffrage, oil and the resource curse, exchange rates and capital controls, protest movements, and the frayed social contract.

Oilfield Trash

Oilfield Trash
Author: Bobby D. Weaver
Publisher: Texas A&M University Press
Total Pages: 244
Release: 2010-08-24
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1603442057

"Oilfield Trash is written in a charming, flowing style that any reader will enjoy....In Weaver's capable hands, the gypsy lives of a generation of young men unfold on the rigorous stage of drilling fields...."---Paul Spellman, author of Spindletop Boom Days --

Deep Water: The Gulf Oil Disaster and the Future of Offshore Drilling: Report to the President, January 2011

Deep Water: The Gulf Oil Disaster and the Future of Offshore Drilling: Report to the President, January 2011
Author: United States. National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling
Publisher: Government Printing Office
Total Pages: 400
Release: 2011-01-11
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN:

"The explosion that tore through the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig last April 20, as the rig's crew completed drilling the exploratory Macondo well deep under the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, began a human, economic, and environmental disaster. Eleven crew members died, and others were seriously injured, as fire engulfed and ultimately destroyed the rig. And, although the nation would not know the full scope of the disaster for weeks, the first of more than four million barrels of oil began gushing uncontrolled into the Gulf--threatening livelihoods, precious habitats, and even a unique way of life. A treasured American landscape, already battered and degraded from years of mismanagement, faced yet another blow as the oil spread and washed ashore. Five years after Hurricane Katrina, the nation was again transfixed, seemingly helpless, as this new tragedy unfolded in the Gulf. The costs from this one industrial accident are not yet fully counted, but it is already clear that the impacts on the region's natural systems and people were enormous, and that economic losses total tens of billions of dollars"--Page vi of online resource.

From Command to Empathy

From Command to Empathy
Author:
Publisher: Harper Collins
Total Pages: 232
Release: 2017-12-22
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9352774507

'I believe that EQ starts with self-awareness and if we are aware that we need to make a change in our lives, this book can be of great help, if each one even practises a fraction of what is being read, [they] will see a sea change in their work life and personal life for sure.' -S.V. Nathan, chief talent officer, Deloitte India 'This book is an important contribution that provides us with insights about how to get the best from people and organizations in this volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world.' -Sourav Mukherji, dean and professor of organizational behaviour, IIM-Bangalore 'One of the best books I have read on bringing EQ into the workplace.' -Prasad Kaipa, CEO Coach, board member, Indian School of Business, author of From Smart to Wise and TEDx speaker 'This book does a wonderful job of thinking about emotions in the Indian workplace. With its rich brew of personal experiences and learnings, engaging case studies, research and questionnaires, From Command to Empathy is essential reading for employees and their leaders.' -Manish Sabharwal, board member, Reserve Bank of India, and CEO, TeamLease In a world characterized by globalization and rapidly evolving technology, change is a given. The primary workforce is evolving and is now dominated by millennials who seek purpose and empathy - a phenomenon the top management grapples with. Most employers' understanding of this change is restricted, leading to most of the techniques used to address issues being in step with advances in process but overlooking the human element.Can an empathetic approach to our relationships at the workplace help us achieve more? Does the onus of creating and sustaining a supportive culture lie only with the top management? There is an urgent need to move away from traditional command-centred style of management towards an organizational culture that is inclusive, fosters trust and focuses on employee empowerment. From Command to Empathy addresses the tussle between the management and the employees, and investigates the reasons behind them through anecdotes, case studies, questionnaires and self-scoring exercises. Avik Chanda and Suman Ghose draw from real-life examples and their deep industry experience, and research on organizational behaviour and neuroscience, to arrive at practical tips on how to inculcate and use emotional maturity in workplace situations to help readers achieve both professional and personal goals.

The Offshore Advantage

The Offshore Advantage
Author: Terry Neal
Publisher:
Total Pages: 280
Release: 1998
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN:

An explanation of how and why people go offshore.

A Thousand Ways Denied

A Thousand Ways Denied
Author: John T. Arnold
Publisher: LSU Press
Total Pages: 259
Release: 2020-11-11
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 0807174424

From the hill country in the north to the marshy lowlands in the south, Louisiana and its citizens have long enjoyed the hard-earned fruits of the oil and gas industry’s labor. Economic prosperity flowed from pioneering exploration as the industry heralded engineering achievements and innovative production technologies. Those successes, however, often came at the expense of other natural resources, leading to contamination and degradation of land and water. In A Thousand Ways Denied, John T. Arnold documents the oil industry’s sharp interface with Louisiana’s environment. Drawing on government, corporate, and personal files, many previously untapped, he traces the history of oil-field practices and their ecological impacts in tandem with battles over regulation. Arnold reveals that in the early twentieth century, Louisiana helped lead the nation in conservation policy, instituting some of the first programs to sustain its vast wealth of natural resources. But with the proliferation of oil output, government agencies splintered between those promoting production and others committed to preventing pollution. As oil’s economic and political strength grew, regulations commonly went unobserved and unenforced. Over the decades, oil, saltwater, and chemicals flowed across the ground, through natural drainages, and down waterways. Fish and wildlife fled their habitats, and drinking-water supplies were ruined. In the wetlands, drilling facilities sat like factories in the midst of a maze of interconnected canals dredged to support exploration, manufacture, and transportation of oil and gas. In later years, debates raged over the contribution of these activities to coastal land loss. Oil is an inseparable part of Louisiana’s culture and politics, Arnold asserts, but the state’s original vision for safeguarding its natural resources has become compromised. He urges a return to those foundational conservation principles. Otherwise, Louisiana risks the loss of viable uses of its land and, in some places, its very way of life.