Reviews of Oil 101

1. A review of Oil 101 just posted by Robert Boyd.

"I am relatively new to the energy business. One of the things I had to do as soon as I started was to take a course given by Baker-Hughes about all the stages of the oil and gas business. It wasn't a bad course, but I now think it would have been better for me just to read Oil 101 by Morgan Downey......Oil 101 is an excellent handbook, and should be on the desk of anyone in the oil (or gas) industry, regardless of where in the value chain you are." (full review here)

2. Another review here.

Oil 101 Review

A great review of Oil 101 was posted by Robert Rapier of theoildrum and r-squared blogs today. Previously on his r-squared blog, Robert has addressed our collectively low energy IQ and I hope that Oil 101 goes some way to improving the situation. Here is a quote from the review:

"if you want to understand the oil industry, Oil 101 will tell you what you need to know. In fact, "Oil 101" will be my stock answer from now on for anyone who wants to learn more - whether you know nothing or already feel like you are well-informed..."

Financial Times calls Oil 101 a "Must Read"

The Financial Times Alphaville Blog called Oil 101 a "must read" on Feb 25, 2009. They also published some of my charts on US oil inventories and demand.

The Oil Drum - Book Review

In the oil drum review of Oil 101, Heading Out mentioned that I didn't incorporate the recent (Dec, 2008) changes to the US SEC definitions of reserves. The changes are referred to in paragraph 6 on page 296 of Chapter 14: Reserves of Oil 101. The changes take effect for financial reports filed after Dec 15, 2009. I agree with Heading Out that it is challenging to incorporate last minute changes into a book. A decision was made with knowledge of the new regulations to leave the existing SEC definitions in place (with reference to upcoming changes) as all of the financial reports readers see at the moment refer to the "old" SEC definitions.

Heading Out also made a very good point about it being beneficial to see expanded versions of charts and diagrams used in the book. I hope to address this with selected charts from the book appearing on the site www.morgandowney.com

First Post

Check out IBM featuring the book Oil 101 on the front of their global homepage this week (Feb 16-22, 2009). The oil industry is one of the world's biggest users of cutting edge technology.

Also, many thanks to the oil drum for reviewing Oil 101 on Monday (Feb 16, 2009). The oil drum is the leading global oil blog with a fantastic crew of experts.

I was quoted in Barron's last weekend in an article about the spread between heating oil and gasoline. Some have referred to the spread as the widow maker as many relative value traders foundered on it over the past year.

I called this blog 'Scarce Whales' as one of the many possible titles for Oil 101 was 'Scarce Whales and Dark Nights', which following visits to Nantucket, the 18th century Saudi Arabia, and reading about the whaleship Essex, I thought had a nice ring to it harking back to the the reason the modern oil industry sprang up (lack of inexpensive whales and a need for cheap lighting). The 'Dark Nights' part seemed a little too pessimistic and simply calling the book 'Scarce Whales' could have relegated it to the fisheries section of book shops.