Table of Contents

From Drake's well in 1859 through OPEC, the oil shocks, the shale revolution, and beyond.

How crude oil is classified: API gravity, sulfur content, and the spectrum from light sweet to heavy sour.

Crude oil, condensate, NGLs, and the full range of hydrocarbon liquids.

Paraffins, naphthenes, aromatics, and olefins. The molecular building blocks.

Upstream, midstream, downstream. IOCs, NOCs, independents, and service companies.

Seismic surveys, drilling, completion, decline curves, and enhanced oil recovery.

Distillation, cracking, reforming, blending. How crude becomes useful products.

API, ASTM, and the specifications that define petroleum products.

Gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, fuel oil, LPG, lubricants, asphalt, and petrochemicals.

Plastics, fertilizers, and the chemical products derived from oil and gas.

Pipelines, tankers, rail, trucks, and the logistics of global oil movement.

Tank farms, salt caverns, floating storage, Cushing, and the SPR.

Driving season, heating season, refinery maintenance, and how seasons shape prices.

Proved, probable, possible. Reserve replacement ratios and peak oil.

Emissions standards, sulfur limits, carbon pricing, and the regulatory landscape.

ICE efficiency, hybrids, EVs, hydrogen, and the future of the powertrain.

Benchmarks, WTI, Brent, Dubai, and how the price of oil is determined.

NYMEX, ICE, the forward curve, contango, backwardation, and swap markets.

Calls, puts, collars, Black-76, and the language of oil options.

How producers and consumers hedge. Swaps, collars, three-way structures, and corporate strategy.

Horizontal drilling, hydraulic fracturing, and how US tight oil reshaped global energy.

The alliance with Russia, production cuts, price wars, and the new era of managed supply.

April 20, 2020. How WTI fell to -$37.63 and what it revealed about oil markets.

From net importer to the world's largest exporter. The globalization of American gas.

EVs, renewables, carbon markets, ESG, and the peak demand debate.