The Quest: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World (Vol. I)

The introduction opens with two shocks on opposite sides of the globe: the earthquake and tsunami that crippled the Fukushima nuclear plant on 11 March 2011, and the «Arab Spring» sweeping the Middle East. From these Yergin draws the book's three questions: will there be enough energy, how can supply be kept secure, and how will climate concerns change the energy system? He recalls that Admiral Rickover feared in the 1950s that fossil fuels would run out before 2050; today's question is how the world will cope when per-capita oil use in developing countries rises from 3 barrels a year to 6.

«The Caspian Derby» begins with Western oilmen arriving in Baku as the USSR falls apart: a city that a century earlier boasted oil barons' palaces and one of the world's great opera houses now looks to them like «a museum of oil history». Yergin compares the clash of interests around the Caspian to the nineteenth-century «Great Game», but notes that this time the real struggle is over pipeline routes rather than arms — «pipeline politics», or, given all the shouting, the «Caspian Derby».

The players are introduced one by one: Russia's energy minister pounds the table — «That's our oil!»; the US and Britain aim to consolidate the newly independent states and diversify supply; Iran worries about the pull of a Western-linked, independent Azerbaijan on its own Azerbaijanis; China's interest emerges later, through investment. The new states' goal is clear: secure their independence without provoking Russia.

The historical layer is handled with skill: Ludwig Nobel, who built the world's first oil tanker; Shell, founded on Baku oil; the young Stalin agitating in Baku's oil fields around the 1905 revolution; the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, which established the Muslim world's first modern parliament and gave women the vote; Hitler's drive toward Baku. The author also notes that the Karabakh war displaced about 10% of the population, and describes the political instability of the early 1990s.

At the center of the chapter is Heydar Aliyev's strategy: Yergin traces his Soviet-era career, his removal from Moscow and his return to power in 1993, calling him «a proven tactician and a brilliant strategist». The «Contract of the Century», signed in September 1994 at Baku's Gulistan Palace with ten companies from six countries, targeted the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli field. The dispute over the route for «Early Oil» — north through Russia or west through Georgia — was settled by using both: «Don't offend anyone.»

The options for the main export pipeline are weighed: the tanker risk in the Bosphorus, with its 12 bends and 675-meter narrowest point; a cheap swap via Iran; and finally Baku–Tbilisi–Ceyhan. Scenes such as negotiations over Georgia's Borjomi mineral springs running until three in the morning bring the story to life. When the pipeline opened in 2006, it was Ilham Aliyev who stood at the ceremony; Yergin quotes him: «We need oil for our main goal: to be a real country.» The chapter closes with the South Caucasus Pipeline carrying Shah Deniz gas to Turkey.

• Each chapter opens with a concrete scene; history, economics and personalities are woven together with skill
• Maps (the Caspian and Caucasus, pipeline politics) make the text easy to follow
• Decades of the author's personal interviews in the energy industry give an insider's perspective
• The Turkish edition has scanning errors and some inconsistent terminology