Energy Policy 57 (2013) 644–645
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Energy Policy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/enpol
Book review
The oil and gas industry: A nontechnical guide
The Oil and Gas Industry: A Nontechnical Guide, J.F. Hilyard.
Pennwell Corporation, Tulsa, OK (2012). 315 pages, ISBN: 978-
1-59370-254-0 2012, 315 pages
Recent years have seen the publication of several meticulous
and far-reaching treatments of energy-related issues. This cover-
age has been put forth on both a grand scale (e.g., Harvey, 2010;
Smil, 2005; Yergin, 2011) and a narrower trajectory (such as the
systematic coverage of a single energy resource found in Bridge
and Le Billon (2013)). Yet regardless of the idiosyncratic topical
focus adopted by the author(s), many readers of this journal will
be familiar with the ubiquitous intellectual strains that tend to
permeate volumes like the aforementioned, including the urgency
of energy security, the perplexing politics of reliable supply, the
imperative for speeding the transition from fossil fuels to sources
like solar power, and the depressing inertia surrounding the
requisite grid integration of (increasingly) technically and eco-
nomically viable renewable energies. Several other drivers will
ensure that in the future, cornucopias of comprehensive energy
knowledge assessments reach bookstores everywhere: looming
global climate change, mounting regional political risks, and
producer government fiscal vagaries will likely make an appear-
ance, as will elucidation of the ongoing rapid paradigm shifts in
technical prowess and scientific information.
Truly helpful contributions are rare in the already-crowded
world of energy analysis. Yet in a highly accessible new release
entitled The oil and gas industry: A nontechnical guide (published
by the same group responsible for similar titles like Leffler, 2008;
Leffler et al., 2011; Hyne, 2012), the engineer and journalist
Hilyard manages to make a worthwhile impact on the field.
Compiling vast amounts of fossil fuel industry information, he
elegantly synthesizes the essentials into a detailed ‘nontechnical’
primer about the modern oil and gas industry. His writing is
blessedly devoid of excessive jargon and, as a result, it will be
comfortably readable by both the moderately energy-literate and
advanced readers seeking to enhance their expertise.
Yet clarity should not be confused with inferiority, as Hilyard’s
more inclusivist approach does not detract from the intellectual
rigour of his text’s descriptions. Subjects, ranging from the
geological considerations involved in prospecting for promising
oil formations to the economics of drilling wells to the conversion
of oil and gas into functional products, are analyzed in-depth and
corroborated by numerous readily comprehensible graphs. In the
process, Hilyard delves deeply into the nuances of the technolo-
gically sophisticated world built by hydrocarbon industries and
lucidly explicates the complexities underlying this most impor-
tant of all sectors. Indeed, this thoughtful tome was so excellent
and so thorough that this innately hyper-critical reviewer found
little to critique.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2013.01.055
Several noteworthy points emerge in this work. This reviewer
was particularly fascinated by the breath-taking array of innova-
tive means that are now being utilized to ensure delivery of the
almost 90 million barrels of oil consumed around the world every
day. Production innovations have ushered in an age where
extended-reach drilling – a method primarily utilized for reaching
near-shore oil targets or oil and gas trapped beneath areas in need
of environmental preservation – can now reach depths (8 miles)
and horizontal lengths (7 miles) that seem to defy even the most
audacious engineering imaginations. Gravity-based offshore plat-
forms, propped up by bulky concrete columns, are equipped with
buoyancy-altering ballast tanks that allow work to proceed in
treacherous waters like those found far off the coast of rugged
Newfoundland (Canada). Impossibly remote oil and gas bearing
regions of the globe are, suddenly, reachable.
Of course, innovation is by no means exclusive to fossil fuel
production. The transportation of hydrocarbons is infused with
ingenuity as well. For example, smart pigs (sophisticated equipment
otherwise known by the less amusing title of internal line inspection
devices) are deployed to search for deformations, corrosion, and
cracking in pipeline infrastructure, helping to mitigate the risk of
costly spills or leaks. Even conversions into end-use products are
changing, with Shell’s proprietary Middle Distillate Synthesis
process at the Qatari industrial city of Ras Laffan likely to further
nudge along the inevitable mass commercial uptake of gas-to-
liquids technology. Time and time again, the author amazes with
tidbits of prose that simultaneously educate and wow the reader.
Perhaps most exciting (or dangerous, depending on your perspec-
tive) is the potential economic benefit of unlocking the globe’s
enormous unconventional hydrocarbon reserves - a subject likely to
be at the forefront of every energy policy-maker’s mind. From the oil
sands of northern Alberta to the extra heavy crude oil comprising
Venezuela’s Orinoco Basin to the significant shale gas reserves found
in France, geologists and petroleum engineers have long salivated at
the prospect of systematically exploiting these colossal potential
supplies. Yet for sound economic and technical reasons, unconven-
tional deposits have historically not been factored into a nation’s
all-important energy calculus – the net proven oil reserves figure –
and these reserves have been forced to lay dormant and wait for the
requisite mix of technological prowess and financially attractive price
points to unlock them. That much-anticipated inflection point
appears to have arrived, much to the delight of politicians (particu-
larly of the American variety) who have waxed poetic about the
benefits of energy independence for decades (Littlefield, 2013).
Everything, however, seems to come with a cost: the excitement
around unconventionals has been justifiably tampered by growing
evidence that suggests these energy sources come shackled with a
dizzying array of negative environmental impacts and potential social
harms that appear bereft of a universally applicable set of solutions.
 Book review / Energy Policy 57 (2013) 644–645
By the text’s conclusion, it is easy to wonder about the outlook
for oil and gas. Will we successfully transfer from currently
dominant oil and gas to ostensibly benevolent energy derived from
wind, water, and solar in the relatively near future (Jacobson and
Delucchi, 2011)? Will game-changing shale gas availability hinder
renewables, or will it simply ensure that gas follows past energy
transitions and displaces dirty coal? What role (if any) will climate
change play in toxically politicized energy debates? A satisfactory
answer to these questions remains necessarily unclear, but texts like
Hilyard’s enable us to grasp the scale of the monumental challenges
– and possibly bigger opportunities – surely lying ahead.
Acknowledgments
The author would like to thank Sali El-Sadig for her insightful
comments and always-helpful introspection.
References
Bridge, G., Le Billon, P, 2013. Oil. Polity Press, Malden, MA.
Harvey, D., 2010. Energy and the New Reality, vol. 2. Earthscan, London
Carbon-free energy supply.
Hyne, N.J., 2012. Nontechnical Guide to Petroleum Geology, Exploration, Drilling &
Production. Pennwell Corporation, Tulsa, OK.
645
Jacobson, M.Z., Delucchi, M.A., 2011. Providing all global energy with wind, water,
and solar power, Part 1: Technologies, energy resources, quantities and areas
of infrastructure, and materials. Energy Policy 39, 1154–1169.
Leffler, W.L., Pattarozzi, R., Sterling, G., 2011. Deepwater Petroleum Exploration &
Production: A Nontechnical Guide. Pennwell Corporation, Tulsa, OK.
Leffler, W.L., 2008. Petroleum Refining in Nontechnical Language. Pennwell
Corporation, Tulsa, OK.
Littlefield, S.R., 2013. Security, independence, and sustainability: imprecise
language and the manipulation of energy policy in the United States. Energy
Policy 52, 779–788.
Smil, V., 2005. Energy at the Crossroads: Global Perspectives and Uncertainties,
MIT Press. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, MA.
Yergin, D., 2011. The Quest: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern
World. The Penguin Press, New York.
Joel Krupa
University of Toronto, St. George Campus, Department of Geography,
Sidney Smith Hall, 100 St. George Street, Toronto, ON, Canada M5S
3G3
E-mail addresses: joelkrupa@gmail.com,
joel.krupa@mail.utoronto.ca
Received 29 January 2013; accepted 31 January 2013
Available online 23 February 2013