The Offshore Imperative
Shell Oil’s Search for Petroleum in Postwar America
978-1-60344-156-8 Paperback
6 x 9 x 0 in
336 pp. 25 b&w photos. 3 maps. 1 line
Pub Date: 10/12/2009
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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.
“This book’s narrative is sustained throughout by easily understood explanations of the technical details of drilling and production.”—Journal of Southern History
Kenneth E. Montague Series in Oil and Business History
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Published by Texas A&M University Press