The pandemic caused unprecedented disruption to the global shipping of oil, but the industry survived with the help of massive state intervention. Control over the oil trade is a vital tool of economic power that the US is determined to retain.

This is an excerpt from Extractive Capitalism: How Commodities and Cronyism Drive the Global Economy, now available from Verso Books.

Fly over ocean anchorages near the world’s largest oil ports, and you’ll see a tangle of cargo ships waiting to refuel and tankers of all sizes radiating out from the loading buoys, queuing to unload or load their cargo.

Oil ports often boast proximity to both tank farms and refineries. These oil facilities are usually visible in their totality only from the air or from the sea, with loading buoys sometimes a mile

See Full Page