But who gave birth to the oil industry? What have they done with the immense wealth and power that it has granted them? And what are they planning to do with that power in a post-carbon world? This is the remarkable true story of the oiligarchs and the world they have created.

Oil. From farm to pharmaceutical, diesel truck to dinner plate, pipeline to plastic product, it is impossible to think of an area of our modern-day lives that is not affected by the petrochemical industry. The story of oil is the story of the modern world.

Parts of that story are well-known: Rockefeller and Standard Oil; the internal combustion engine and the transformation of global transport; the House of Saud and the oil wars in the Middle East.

Other parts are more obscure: the quest for oil and the outbreak of World War I; the petrochemical interests behind modern medicine; the Big Oil money behind the "Green Revolution" and the "Gene Revolution."