The druid Getafix is running short of rock oil - an essential ingredient in the magic potion that gives the Gaulish villagers superhuman strength to fight Julius Caesar's Roman legions. But the Phoenician merchant Ekonomikrisis has forgotten the druid's order, and Asterix and Obelix set off to prospect for black gold in the Middle Eastern desert.

The classic graphic novel. Car engines have started spontaneously exploding all over the country . . . someone's been tampering with the oil! Tintin, with Thompson and Thompson at his side, sails on an oil tanker to the Middle East to track down the source of the faulty oil.