Book Review of A Brief History of Oil: From Technological Progress to Changing the World

Abstract

In order to explore the connection between oil and economy, society and politics, and grasp the future development trend of the oil field, Vaclav Smil introduced the development history of oil from the perspective of economy, society and politics, and then discussed the problems encountered by human beings in oil exploration, production, transportation, refining and sales, and introduced the huge creativity gradually accumulated by human beings in the process of extracting and processing oil, which made crude oil the world's most important source of energy. A Brief History of Oil: From Technological Progress to Changing the World is a book by Vaclav Smil, which consists of 12 chapters in 5 parts. It mainly covers the advantages and disadvantages of oil; The composition of oil and the geological conditions of its extraction; The improvement of oil exploitation technology and the discovery of super-large oil fields; Discovery of recoverable crude oil, development of oil fields, the management of extraction, refining and transportation; Finally, it concludes with reflections on the future of oil under the new pattern of energy strategy. The feature of this work is to obtain analytical data by examining the relationship between petroleum and society, economy and politics, to provide support for the optimization of petroleum system, and to provide scientific reference for scientists, educators, and managers engaged in the petroleum industry.