Hess: The Last Oil Baron (Bloomberg)

I have collaborated with part of the Hess team with their admirable work to use natural gas that would be flared to fuel operations in the Bakken but did not know the company's history.I enjoyed reading about Leon Hess, the entrepreneur, the visionary, the risk taker as well as the loyal family man, friend and philanthropist.The chapters related to expanding downstream operations and refineries as demand grew in the U.S. after the war were especially interesting because my experience in the industry has been upstream.His vision to invest in a broad-based industry and create jobs is from an era before companies were managed by their quarterly earnings reports.His son, family and the company are respected and well-positioned in the industry having weathered the early years of the shale revolution.The book is well written and shares insight of a successful but private man who built a successful public company.I bought a copy for my father for Christmas. I look forward to hearing his thoughts on the history of Hess.

I was privileged to work for Amerada Hess early in my career. Much of what was written rang true with my experiences and knowledge on the company, but this also filled in many gaps too. Leon was a greater man than I even realized at the time. I loved working for Hess. The company had tremendous camaraderie. You worked hard, and sweat the details, but it was like a family.

Fascinating book about such a complex man. A true american rags to riches story (only true). His story is amazing. Great read and a great gift idea!

Exxellent book that reveals many insights of Hess. I really enjoy reading this book and recommend my friends and family to read it.

A puff piece.

This is certainly not without interest, and makes for a pleasant read, but falls way short of being memorable.Instead of using a chronological approach to its protagonist - which for me is usually the best way to provide a real sense of understanding of the subject of any biography - "Hess" uses a sort of scattergun technique: where different aspects of the life of Hess Snr. are dealt with separately instead of being incorporated in an overall timeline. It is rather like looking through a photo album and providing descriptions of the background details behind each photo. While this does serve to provide a sense of variety in describing the life that might otherwise seem less than compelling, it does, however, leave the reader with a feeling of insatisfaction. I never really felt as though I had got to know Leon Hess - just some of his characteristics.A pleasant enough read, as I said, and well worth the time spent in doing so. For those interested in the personalities behind the oil business, it is a worthwhile addition to the canon - although nowhere near the majesty of, say, "TITAN" (Rockefeller) by Ron Chernow - either in terms of its subject or treatment.

Really enjoyed this book. As an industry professional it was pitched at a good level and gave a real insight into how Leon built Hess from the ground up. Certain chapters on the American Football League are less relevant to UK readers. Overall and excellent read and would recommend.

It reminded of the large moves in prices (10x increases from July 1950 toMar 1952, then a 90 percent drop by Sept of 1952)

A working-hard-to-get-to-the-top story is usually a safe bet, and this is no exception; it is impressive what Mr Hess managed to accomplish in an often volatile world.I have to start by saying that I think there is an incongruence between the spiel on the cover and the contents of the book: On the cover it is intimated that the book is full of exclusive interviews and insightful anecdotes, but I see it more as the broad strokes of the different parts of his life gathered from publicly available articles, books, interviews etc. and the authors do not seem to have spoken to that many of the players themselves. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but don’t expect a host of pictures and anecdotes from his former partners, family or business adventures. Actually it is made quite clear in the final chapter that they were not interested in the book being written at all.Rather, it is a well-written and -organised recap of his (mostly business) life and the challenges faced at different parts of his empire building from getting the right political and personal connections (ch 1) to realising the growing importance of oil as transport fuel and heating, the basis for opening up to other countries (ch 2) and putting logistics lessons learned in the war into use and developing new markets in a volatile priced oil world (ch 3).Ch 4 sees Hess merging with a good business partner (Amerada – ch4) to become an ‘integrated’ company and cover all stages of oil production, refinery, distribution and sale. This is also where we hear that he could be somewhat ruthless and maybe even underhand at times, but it seems bribery etc. was quite the standard procedure up till the 70s (and even further than that) when more regulation came into play (many oil companies were famously supporting undemocratic governments in order to get good deals).Chapter 5 deals with Amerada Hess’ work with/in Libya, Iran – and later on Equatorial Guinea. Especially the first two countries were obviously not particularly easy to work with as a Jewish man, but his reputation for hard work and honesty in business dealings allowed him to establish rather good connections. There is a bit about the changing political situation to provide the time setting, but it is assumed that the reader has a decent advance knowledge of the region and its politics (which is likely a good assumption for the target audience).Chapter 6 is entitled Hess in DC and deals with how he’s both used in hearings on how the Persian Gulf crisis affected oil supplies and prices (in 1990) and oil futures speculation. Moreover, it shows how he was a donor to both the Democratic and Republican parties and how it seems to have paid off even if he is said not to ever have requested anything in return… We then move back to another good business decision in ch 7 where the focus is on the U. S. Virgin Islands refinery which could process Middle Eastern crude oil cheaply and deliver the products to the US East Coast. Another advantage of course was that he could qualify for tax breaks, but still not have to adhere to requirements for U.S. flagged tankers. This links well with the previous politics chapter.Ch 8 owning the Jets and the debate about the stadium location.Ch. 9 The Hess truck as a collector’s item and the clever marketing it was.Ch 10 Hess’ Philanthropy (one of the less successful chapters in my mind)Ch11 The son, John Hess's plans and strategies. He wants to stay big and even more diversified, but it's not as easy in practice as in theory - especially if you are not one of the few major companies. And as times changes for different methods of trading oil on the markets and even different ways of getting oil (fracking moving the oil production back to the US), the question is raised whether he is the right person to lead the company. Chapter 12 deals with this fight for control as one of the new major shareholders is criticising the company for being run as a family organisation rather than the public company it is to the detriment of the non-family shareholders. And this power struggle is where they leave the story as it is still ongoing and the shares have faced a bit of headwind lately (like many others in the energy sector). As I mentioned at the top, there isn't actually so much information about Leon Hess himself, but as an introduction to the company - and the times and conditions under which it has existed - it is a really good and rewarding read.I think it gives a very good insight into how much power the oil companies have and how many levels they work on in that field. It’s at times as much political (international and domestic) as it is business and I think the two writers have shown that well. They have picked the interesting and pivotal events and decisions and worked with them to provide a good idea of the person behind the business as well as the overall environment – and morality – that you have to work with to become an oil magnate.All in all an interesting book both for the insight into the politics of the business as well as the decisions made that separated him from the field much from the outset. 3.5 stars and recommended.

As a European, I was not familiar with Leon Hess, the archytypcal rags to riches oil baron who grasped the opportunity the burgeoning oil industry presented to him and created a business empire. The two authors,Tina Davis, editor for Bloomberg News who writes about energy issues and who has also worked for The Economist, the Sunday Times of London, and The Energy Daily, and Jessica Resnick-Ault ,editor for Thomson Reuters, have produced a wll researched biography of the Jewish immigrant's son who started out with a single oil truck before building his empire.However, it is hard to engage with the subject and at times it follows a formulamatic approach with whilst not being a hagiography, is perhaps not as critically subjective as it could have been.That's what happens when two journalists embeded in the system tackle a subject. No doubt an author from a Marxist background would handle it differently.Interesting nevertheless.