This issue brings together five articles on the modern petroleum industry. Two cover the growth of the industry in the early twentieth century: Michael Adamson's study of the development by independent oilman Ralph Lloyd of California's coastal oil region; and the study by Lisa Bud-Frierman,...

British overseas investment was a powerful force behind rapid global integration before World War I. Close to half of the total was in the form of foreign direct investment. Weetman Pearson was among the most successful of Britain's overseas-based entrepreneurs of the period. By 1919, the...

The entrepreneurial activity of Enrico Mattei, who headed the Italian state oil company AGIP (later ENI) from 1945 to 1962, laid the groundwork for the company's growth during the 1950s and 1960s. Mattei relied on a group of knowledgeable specialists, who were equipped with a complex set of...

The US set an oil export ban after the Iranian crisis in the 1970s due to energy security issues. Since US oil production has been continuously diminishing, there had not been many issues until recently. However, after the hydraulic fracturing technology was introduced to development of shale in...