Blowout

“For all the far-flung experimentation, by the mid-1990s the basic idea of fracking was pretty straightforward: inject enough fluid into the rock, at high enough pressure, to open up some narrow escape pathways for the stuff you wanted to capture. What should be in the fluid? That was the gazillion dollar question.” 

This passage illustrates the almost haphazard way that slickwater fracking came into existence, at least in how its formula was put together. The exact components of the ideal slickwater formula was a “gazillion dollar question.”

“A new genie was out of the bottle. It’s hard to say, even today, if that genie is a friend. But he has had effect.” 

The genie referenced here is the method of fracking, combined with horizontal drilling, which skyrocketed the production of natural gas and opened new doors to Big Oil and Gas. The effects of this new “genie” are complex, as it created countless more jobs in the industry, but perhaps at the expense of the environment.

“The boundaries of capitalism and democracy in Russia were still being chalked, the rules of the game still being written, but Khodorkovsky flew onto the field with abandon.” 

Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s story is largely a cautionary tale about the idea of exploring free enterprise in Putin’s Russia. Khodorkovsky tried to make his company Yukos work, but ultimately Russia was not a place where capitalism could thrive, as state-owned companies swallowed up Khodorkovsky’s Yukos at Putin’s behest.

“Putin wanted more—more respect, more influence, more oil.”

As Maddow unravels the sprawling narrative of Vladimir Putin, she introduces us to one of the themes that will characterize a vast percentage of his own personal motivations: expansionism. Putin isn’t ever satisfied with “just enough.”

“The company [Chesapeake Energy] was the Charlie Hustle of the natural gas world, drilling anywhere and everywhere: under a suburban country club’s manicured lawns, a university’s parking lot, an airport’s runways and terminals, and right next to schools and day-care centers.”

Maddow describes Aubrey McClendon’s Chesapeake Energy in a prototypical manner, one that could be ascribed to any major player in the US oil industry. Drilling never stops, regardless of where or how it is done, all in the name of growth and profits.

“The most hard-hearted Americans regarded residents of OKC as the descendants of folks who lacked the gumption and git up and git to California seventy years earlier.”

Oklahoma City was weighed down by emotional and historical baggage before its meteoric rise into the American limelight. While previous generations were riddled with poverty and low self-esteem, this new generation would enjoy the spoils of an oil boom.

“Here’s the crux of the matter. Oil and gas companies do the kind of risky, capital-intensive work that the average Joe, the average mom-and-pop business, even the average country, doesn’t do for itself.”

Maddow describes oil and gas companies as relentless in their pursuits, endlessly drilling and fracking in an effort to grow. The expertise of the industry is so specific, the risks and rewards so high, that oil and gas companies essentially set the standard themselves.

“God didn’t fail to properly cement that drill pipe, it should be noted, but alas God would be blamed.”

After the Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico, Rick Perry, governor of Texas at the time, called the incident an “act of God,” an event completely unstoppable and unpreventable by human hands.

“The basic problem is that oil doesn’t happily coexist with other industries upon which you might build a reasonably stable national economy.”

Throughout the book Maddow clearly establishes Big Oil and Gas as its own animal, a global industry that plays by its own rules and makes new ones up as it goes. Other industries take a backseat or are actively sought out to be destroyed.

“Okay, America. Note to self: Do not drink frack fluid. Good advice. Someone tell the cows. And the neighbors.”

Maddow recounts a 60 Minutes interview with Aubrey McClendon, during which he was questioned about fracking’s negative impacts on the environment. McClendon dismissed the notion, saying that people should avoid drinking frack fluid but deeming the “nasty chemicals” in frack fluid a necessary and harmless part of the fracking process.

“Best practices is industry speak that’s meant to imply persistent improvement. But things only improve over time if there’s pressure—and in business, it’s always economic pressure—to actually get better.”

Lacking accountability or market pressure, the oil and gas industry has rarely felt the need to improve. Big Oil and Gas makes up the rules as it goes, while “best practices” fall by the wayside, deprioritized and forgotten due to the influence of oil and gas corporate giants.

“Bottled water, paper towels, stray boom here and there—a 1967 oil and gas environmental disaster looks exactly like a 2019 oil and gas environmental disaster for a reason. The only difference is that now everyone signs more waivers of their rights.” 

In the past 50 years, little has changed in the oil and gas industry when it comes to environmental concerns and priorities. Regulations are a laughable formality, as Big Oil and Gas companies walk away from environmental disasters relatively consequence-free, even with major technological innovations available to aid cleanup efforts.

“You get Putin’s buy-in on the deal, or there is no deal, period.” 

Maddow refers to Rex Tillerson’s savvy in this particular passage, as the ExxonMobil CEO knew the power of a Putin handshake. If Putin approved, the deal would go through. If he didn’t, who knew what consequences awaited those who opposed his vision for Russia.

“Just a few years into the first term, Putin chose Sechin—a man with exactly zero experience in the oil industry—to take on a second post in addition to serving as deputy chief of staff to the president: Sechin would also be chairman of the board of Rosneft, the largest state-controlled oil company in the most lucrative and strategic of all Russia’s industrial sectors.”

This passage illustrates the primary methodology of Putin’s decision-making when it comes to choosing allies. Loyalty takes precedence over expertise, as clearly evidenced by Sechin’s appointment to the chairmanship of Rosneft.

“Putin and Sechin believed their energy industry was about restoring Russian honor, about winning prestige in the eyes of the world, a la the cosmonautical Soviet space program or the Soviet nuclear arsenal.” 

After Putin assumed the Russian presidency in 2000, his ideology became increasingly clear. With Sechin and his siloviki by his side, Putin’s goal was to bring Russia to the global spotlight once again, and the best way there was to go all in on the nation’s oil and gas industry.

“What the Russians brought to the oil and gas game north of the Arctic Circle in 2012 was sheer brute force. Which was much needed. Almost any maritime operation in the Arctic promised a punishing battle against the harshest nature can offer.”

The Russian Arctic has long been the Holy Grail for Big Oil and Gas, and Putin was willing to go there with any major oil company that played by his rules. ExxonMobil eventually made a deal with Rosneft to pioneer drilling in the Arctic, despite nature’s warning that this would not be an easy undertaking.

“Looking back on the Guccifer lark of 2013, with the remarkable cyber-shenanigans-filled political season of 2016 behind us, it’s pretty clear that whatever was motivating that random Transylvanian, sitting at his kitchen table, patiently unraveling the online lives and habits of America’s elite, it ended being a beautiful test run for something way more destructive.”

Guccifer’s hacks left America reeling and paranoid, a feeling that reemerged after evidence surfaced of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Americans turned on each other, falling for disinformation campaigns and running toward opposite extremes of the political spectrum.

“The story of oil and gas in Oklahoma is pretty much the story of modern Oklahoma. As to the chicken and the egg question, there is little doubt—energy came first. Oil was discovered in Oklahoma long before it was a state and still trumps government and governance.”

Oklahoma is the US state most prominently featured in Blowout, and this passage illustrates why. Oklahoma’s DNA is rooted in the oil industry—its collective identity is anchored not in regional culture but in oil and gas.

“KFC has its secret herbs and spices, fracking companies have their proprietary slickwater goo, and apparently Exxon has its secret special menu of which exact government officials or proxies an American oil company must pay off—and how well—in order to secure the right to profit from a country’s natural resource. Without hassle from said government.” 

Big Oil and Gas companies have enjoyed a smooth ride, free from major impediments in America, largely due to the “formula” Maddow refers to here, a mix of payoffs and handouts that ensure the unencumbered success of major oil and gas companies in the United States.

“Sanctions, again and again, are the core issue—the boring, insistent thing—at the center of all these otherwise intriguing and/or laughable contacts and overtures that everyone in Trump’s orbit tried to keep so secret during Russia’s extraordinary intervention in the 2016 election and beyond. Russia wants what it wants. But what it needed right then—like a junkie long past his last hit—was sanctions relief.” 

In Blowout sanctions usually only appear after major catastrophes, temporary consequences for purposes of appeasement. Yet serious, lasting sanctions could actually help hold the global oil and gas industry accountable.

“The oil and gas industry—left to its own devices—will mindlessly follow its own nature. It will make tons of money. It will corrode and corrupt and sabotage democratic governance. It will screw up and—in the end—provide oil and gas along the way!”

Maddow explicitly states an argument that was earlier implied by her vignettes throughout the book: The global oil and gas industry moves like a force of nature through governments and nations and individuals. The trade-off is that the world is supplied with these fuels—at the expense of environments across the planet.

“Most of all, the point is that it’s time for the most lucrative and reckless and destructive industry on earth to pay for what it does.” 

Maddow argues that US taxpayer subsidies for oil and gas drilling are an affront to the very notion of accountability. In this final chapter, as Maddow calls for solutions and resolve, she asserts that a time of reckoning is overdue for Big Oil and Gas, the “most lucrative and reckless and destructive industry on earth.”

“Coal is dead. As dead as whale oil and kerosene and every other fuel source we once believed we couldn’t live without. Oil and gas are dead, too—only they just don’t look sick yet. Jobs in those industries must and will become jobs in other industries, which will undoubtedly be a painful adjustment.”

While Maddow acknowledges the difficulty of transitioning from oil and gas to cleaner alternative fuel sources, she also reminds the reader that other fuels, like coal, have also come and gone, while humanity has survived.