Peter Maass is the author, most recently, of Crude World: The Violent Twilight of Oil. (September 2011)
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What Happened at the Macondo Well?
September 29, 2011
Drowning in Oil: BP and the Reckless Pursuit of Profit
by Loren C. Steffy
A Hole at the Bottom of the Sea: The Race to Kill the BP Oil Gusher
by Joel Achenbach
Fire on the Horizon: The Untold Story of the Gulf Oil Disaster
by John Konrad and Tom Shroder
Deep Water: The Gulf Oil Disaster and the Future of Offshore Drilling
a report to the President by the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling
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Exxon's Russian Roulette
September 9, 2011
How can you turn $3.2 billion into $500 billion in a day? If you are Vladimir Putin, the prime minister of Russia, and Rex Tillerson, the chief executive of Exxon, you announce a deal that allows Exxon to explore for oil in Russia’s Arctic waters. According to Putin, who last week said, “It’s scary to utter such huge figures,” the deal could reach $500 billion. According to Exxon’s news release, all that’s been agreed so far is an investment of $3.2 billion. The only certainty is that the energy industry’s numbers game sometimes resembles the magical calculations the financial industry relied on before the 2008 crash.