Wanda Jablonski Pioneered Energy Reporting

During the 20th century, two women had a decisive impact on the male-dominated oil industry. One was the muckraker journalist Ida Tarbell, whose history of John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Co. contributed to its dismemberment.

The second woman, also a journalist, was Wanda Jablonski, whose remarkable influence over the international oil industry extended from the 1950s through the 1980s. Jablonski’s success paved the way for female journalists to move into higher profile journalistic positions and also for future generations of energy writers and editors.

In Queen of the Oil Club: The Intrepid Wanda Jablonski and the Power of Information, reporter and historian Anna Rubino tells the story of how Jablonski was able to forge extraordinary relationships with oilmen and OPEC officials alike, unveil the mysteries of the international oil business, and advance the debate that led to the creation of OPEC and its eventual rise to power. As Dan Yergin writes in the foreword, “Her life and her work have much to teach us about her era, oil and politics, and her own craft – and about independence and courage.”

There was no door closed to Wanda, who felt as home on the desert as she did in corporate boardroom. Rubino, who worked for Jablonski’s Petroleum Intelligence Weekly in the 1980s, discusses her legendary mentor.

P&GJ: What prompted you to write your book?

Rubino: Wanda led such a colorful, adventurous life, but it wasn’t until after her death in 1992 when I read some of her stories from the 1950s – from her interview with a Saudi king in his harem to her sparring with the Shah of Iran – that I realized her story just had to be told. She was such a pioneer as a journalist and as a woman. Although I received exclusive access to her papers, she didn’t keep diaries so I had to search through public and private archives and interview over a hundred people who knew her, including senior oil executives and former oil ministers. And they certainly had a lot of stories to tell.

P&GJ: How did Wanda become so influential?

Rubino: Because her father was a Mobil Oil geologist, she grew up speaking the language of derricks and drill bits. She knew the difference between sweet and sour crude. As an investigative reporter for the New York Journal of Commerce and then Petroleum Week from 1944-1961, her deep knowledge of the industry helped her dig up one scoop after another. Although she had to hide behind the gender-neutral byline of “W.M. Jablonski” for the first dozen years of her career, she had become so famous by the late 1950s that she was known only by her first name, Wanda. During her prime, oil companies and oil-producing country officials depended on the information she published every Monday morning.

P&GJ: What was her role in the creation of OPEC?