The petroleum industry is a technically challenging business with high investments, complex projects and operational structures. There are numerous companies and public offices involved in the exploitation of a new oil field, and there is a high degree of specialization among them. Even though standardization has been considered important in this industry for many years, there is still very lit...

For several decades, petroleum has been a commodity of vital impor-tance to the global economy, in which a number of interesting marketphenomena has occurred. This monograph represents my efforts todescribe several of these phenomenon, along with a few other elementsof the oil market. My focus is on elements related to the extractionof petroleum, and the interactions between...