Word: oilmen
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...marks the sesquicentennial of the first oil well, which was drilled in Titusville, Pa. It has been more than a century since any major producer shipped oil in an actual barrel, but the unit has been the industry's standard ever since the overwhelmed Pennsylvania oilmen struck their first gusher. Before U.S. drilling began in 1859, "rock oil" (to differentiate it from vegetable oil or animal fat) was sopped up with rags, wrung out and peddled as a cure for everything from headaches to deafness. Spurred by demand for lamp fuel as whale blubber grew scarce, derricks popped...
...Texas oilmen flaunted their new wealth: "[O]ne oilman wore a hundred-dollar bill as a bow tie; when asked, he would take it off and throw it in the air, then tie another. Another took to riding a pet lion to meet the mailman; yet another tried in vain to keep penguins in a walk-in freezer. One wrote Pablo Picasso asking to buy ten paintings; he didn't specify color or type, just the size of his wall. A Houston oilman's wife wrote to the Smithsonian to ask whether the Hope Diamond was for sale. Then there...
...been more than a century since any major producer shipped oil in an actual barrel, but the unit has been the industry's standard since the mid-1800s, when overwhelmed Pennsylvania oilmen collected the substance in whiskey barrels after striking their first gushers. Before U.S. drilling began in 1859, "rock oil" (to differentiate it from vegetable oil or animal fat) was sopped up with rags, wrung out and peddled as a cure for everything from headaches to deafness. Spurred by demand for lamp fuel as whale blubber grew scarce, derricks popped up all over Pennsylvania's oil region...
...Council, a U.S.-government think tank, predicts that the Gulf of Guinea will supply 20-25% of total U.S. imports by 2020, but Americans are not alone in their mounting dependence upon West Africa. Angola is now China's top oil supplier. Gabon is a key supplier of France. Oilmen from countries as diverse as Russia, Japan and India are showing up in places like Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon, Chad - even perennial war zones like the Democratic Republic of Congo. With all that interest, Paul Lubeck, Michael Watts and Ronnie Lipshutz of the Center for International Policy, a U.S. think tank...
Business interests, of course, play a role. Once the general-election choices are locked in, trial lawyers will have fallen in love with a Democrat, just as oilmen will find true romance with a Republican. But at this early stage, the contest for the support of influential fund raisers and large donors is also a personal one, with allegiances, grudges and gut feelings determining the fate of millions of dollars and eventually shaping the nomination field...