Petronumbers: oil statistics and changing power relations

Abstract

The dissertation analyses how, from an historical perspective, oil reserves estimates, production levels, and oil prices were shaped by changing power relations and different political objectives, at the same time casting a significant influence on the actors involved. In particular, the attempt will be to highlight that numbers undoubtedly have a power of their own, but at the same time, and particularly in the case of oil, it is the evolution of the concepts on which the numbers are grounded that, by mirroring existing political and economic interests, provides the necessary key to the interpretation of the relevant historical data