'The Squeeze' is an invaluable account of the modern oil industry and vital to understanding the awful truth about the current disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. With unprecedented access to their engineers and executives in London and Houston, Tom Bower tells the inside story of BP's history of alleged negligence.

The sensational human story of the hunt for oil, and the politics, power and personalities involved. Over the last 20 years, oil prices have soared from $7 a barrel to $147 and down to $37. Amid economic boom and bust, speculators, traders, politicians and monarchs have plotted to earn fortunes from oil, and prayed for salvation from unpredictable natural and man-made disasters. Exploiting unprecedented close access to the lives of irrepressible traders in New York, Tom Bower presents the untold story of the most important quandary of our times...