The Seven Sisters
How a Handful of Oil Giants Shaped the Modern Energy World
A few years back, I picked up a book called Oil by Gavin Bridge and Philippe Le Billon, published in 2013—a fantastic read that’s stuck with me ever since. I recently skimmed through it again, and it struck me just how eerily relevant it is to today’s markets. Honestly, if you swapped out a few names and numbers, the book could be describing the current oil landscape almost word for word. The “Future of Oil” section, in particular, is spot-on and feels almost prophetic. I highly recommend it to anyone looking to truly understand how the oil market works today.
Flipping through that book inspired me to dive into a bit of oil history myself. With oil at the center of so many market discussions right now, I thought it’d be worthwhile to look back at some of the industry’s most influential players. Their stories might not give us tomorrow’s oil price, but they definitely offer valuable perspective on how today’s markets came to be—and why they work the way they do.