为了挖掘石油与经济、社会和政治的联系, 把握石油领域未来发展走向, 瓦茨拉夫·斯米尔从经济、社会和政治角度介绍石油的发展史, 然后探讨人类在石油勘探、生产、运输、提炼和销售中遇到的问题, 介绍人类在开采, 加工石油的过程中逐渐积累了巨大的创造力, 使原油成为世界上最重要的能源。瓦茨拉夫·斯米尔撰写了著作《石油简史: 从科技进步到改变世界》, 其包含5个部分共12章内容。主要涉及石油带来的利与弊; 石油的组成与石油开采的地质条件; 石油开采技术的提升及超大油田的发现; 可开采原油的发现、油田的开发、开采管理, 精炼以及运输; 最后是关于在能源战略新格局形势下对石油的发展前景的思考; 该著作的特点在于通过考察石油与社会、经济和政治的联系获得可供分析的资料, 为优化石油体系提供支撑, 为从事石油行业的科教者和管理者提供科学参考。

In order to explore the connection between oil and economy, society and politics, and grasp the future development trend of the oil field, Vaclav Smil introduced the development history of oil from the perspective of economy, society and politics, and then discussed the problems encountered by human beings in oil exploration, production, transportation, refining and sales, and introduced the huge creativity gradually accumulated by human beings in the process of extracting and processing oil, which made crude oil the world's most important source of energy. A Brief History of Oil: From Technological Progress to Changing the World is a book by Vaclav Smil, which consists of 12 chapters in 5 parts. It mainly covers the advantages and disadvantages of oil; The composition of oil and the geological conditions of its extraction; The improvement of oil exploitation technology and the discovery of super-large oil fields; Discovery of recoverable crude oil, development of oil fields, the management of extraction, refining and transportation; Finally, it concludes with reflections on the future of oil under the new pattern of energy strategy. The feature of this work is to obtain analytical data by examining the relationship between petroleum and society, economy and politics, to provide support for the optimization of petroleum system, and to provide scientific reference for scientists, educators, and managers engaged in the petroleum industry.