There Will Be Blood

There Will Be Blood, a movie starring Daniel Day Lewis and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, is hitting theaters today. How fitting, seeing as that as I write this, oil is sitting at around $99 bbl. Oil is on everyone's lips it seems. Yesterday, The Wall Street Journal had some excellent piece on the rise of crude oil from $10.72 to $100. Many are wondering if the price of oil will send the U.S. and world economies into recession. As regular readers of this blog know, I'm a firm believer in the commodities bull market; I have been riding the coattails of high oil prices for the last three years. I don't see the end coming yet. So I've decided to share with you some of my favorite books and websites for learning about black tea.

Books

Oil Titans: National Oil Companies in the Middle East by Valerie Marcel and John V. Mitchell. This is an excellent primer on the history, power, and scope of the national oil companies like Saudi Aramco and Kuwait Petroleum Corporation. These companies control most of the oil and gas reserves in the world, so ignoring them is foolish. They are also the engines behind the enormous pools of money wielded by sovereign wealth funds.

The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power by Daniel Yergin. Yergin is the dean of energy consultants, chairing Cambridge Energy Research Associates(CERA). This book won the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction. No one makes a move in the energy patch without consutling with Yergin and CERA.

Twilight in the Desert by Matthew R. Simmons. Simmons is a Houston energy investment banker. He is a firm believer in Peak Oil Theory and posits that the Saudis have been lying for years about their reserves.

Oil on the Brain: Adventures from the Pump to the Pipeline by Lisa Margonelli. A big picture overview of the world of oil from a micro-level, man on the street perspective. It puts a human face on the industry.

Websites

www.resourceinvestor.com
www.hardassetsinvestor.com
www.nymex.com - website of the New York Mercantile Exchange
www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net
www.oilonline.com
wwww.energycurrent.com
www.simmonsco-intl.com - Matt Simmons' investment bank's website
www.iea.org - The International Energy Agency
www.bullsector.com/oil.html- a list of oil & gas stocks
www.energy.gov - the U.S. Department of Energy
www.opec.org
www2.nrcan.gc.ca/es/es/main_e.cfm - Energy Resources Canada
www.pemex.com
www.brs-paris.com/index.php?page=drybulk - tanker rates