Crude Oil, Crude Money: Aristotle Onassis, Saudi Arabia, and the CIA, by Thomas W. Lippman.

AuthorFitzgerald, Timothy

Crude Oil, Crude Money: Aristotle Onassis, Saudi Arabia, and the CIA, by Thomas W. Lippman (Praeger, 2019) 228 pages, ISBN 978-14408-6394-3 (hardcopy). ISBN 978-14408-6395-0 (ebook).

One of the fun things about studying the energy industry is the colorful cast of characters. There have been many through history (and plenty at work today). But Crude Oil, Crude Money is exceptional, and brings the quotidian color of the energy industry into direct contact with a still more glamorous world typically reserved for James Bond and the pages of Vogue. The central character is none other than Aristotle Socrates Onassis, a Greek born in Turkey, who as an Argentine citizen lived in France, and brought a cosmopolitan air to his core oceanic shipping business. While the particular episode related in this volume--an oil shipping contract between Onassis and Saudi Arabia--is not well-known, its long-term import to the international oil industry and geopolitical relations is underrated. Lippman delivers a detailed account of the prelude to the contract and the dramatic three years during which Onassis tried to breathe life into a scheme to stake out a dominant position in the international oil shipping market.

Lippman is a long-time scholar of the Middle East, with a particular expertise in U.S. foreign policy in the region. He delivers a well-written, well-referenced, and well-rounded account of Onassis' scheme. While the book tells a story that economists and oil economists in particular should find interesting, the meticulous background and rich array of sources are valuable assets to researchers. Because the plotline of the contract itself is a bit convoluted, Lippman helps the reader understand the state of the world from the perspective of each of the three main groups of actors, which is critical both to following the twists and turns that follow and to considering the long-term effect of the events.

The first cast was a fleet of Greek shipowners motivated by commercial interests. Onassis owned a global fleet of commercial ships, including but not limited to a substantial and growing fleet of oil tankers. Like other Greeks, Onassis traded around the world, including with North Korea and other Communist satellites, which raised the hackles of the American government. Even though he was not a U.S. citizen, Onassis had expanded his tanker fleet after the conclusion of World War II by purchasing surplus ships from the United States. This led to an...

To continue reading

Request your trial

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT