This book is a descriptive analysis of current influences in the world oil trade. It is concerned with a central unchanged paradox of the industry—its preoccupation with maximizing the production of high-cost rather than low-cost oil. It follows the rise and decline of OPEC monopoly power in the crude market, shows how growth in the international oil business has almost ceased since the late seventies, and explores the reasons behind this slowdown. The author has had twenty-five years of practical consultancy in petroleum economics.