Dramatic narrative, arresting analysis and original research are combined in this book, which addresses the history of one of the world's biggest oil businesses between 1950 and 1975. Assessing BP's comparative performance, the book focuses on how BP responded politically, economically and culturally to the rise of new competitors, the decline of Britain's imperial power, and the determination of nation states to assert national sovereignty over the vital commodity, oil. Climaxing with the OPEC crisis which shook the world in the 1970s, the book - authorised by BP with uniquely unrestricted access to its records - is of wide interest and relevance, especially for those interested in big business, globalisation and nationalism, international affairs, OPEC, the Middle East, and oil. --Publisher description.