National Oil Companies (NOCs) directly or indirectly control the majority of oil and gas reserves. As such, they are of great consequence to their country's economy, to importing countries' energy security, and to the stability of oil and gas markets. The paper analyzes the available evidence on the objectives, governance and performance of 20 NOCs from both net importing and net exporting countries, and draws conclusions about the design of policies and measures that are more likely to lead to social value creation. NOCs differ from private companies on a number of very important variables, including the level of competition in the market in which they operate, their business profile along the sector value chain, and their degree of commercial orientation and internationalization. Most share some core characteristics: they are usually tied to the 'national purpose' and serve political and economic goals other than maximizing the firm's profits. This paper introduces a conceptual model to analyze value creation by NOCs that takes into consideration their complex objective function. Our analysis aims to answer the following questions: Are certain corporate governance arrangements more suited than others to promote value creation? Is good geology a pre-condition for NOC value creation? Are there benefits from exposing the NOC to competition from private oil companies? Does the development of forward and backward linkages hamper NOC value creation?

Approximately two billion dollars a day of petroleum are traded worldwide, which makes petroleum the largest single item in the balance of payments and exchanges between nations. Petroleum represents the larger share in total energy use for most net exporters and net importers. While petroleum taxes are a major source of income for more than 90 countries in the world, poor countries net importers are more vulnerable to price increases than most industrialized economies. This paper has five chapters. Chapter one describes the key features of upstream, midstream, and downstream petroleum operations and how these may impact value creation and policy options. Chapter two draws on ample literature and discusses how changes in the geopolitical and global economic environment and in the host governments' political and economic priorities have affected the rationale for and behavior of National Oil Companies' (NOCs). Rather than providing an in-depth analysis of the philosophical reasons for creating aNOC, this chapter seeks to highlight the special nature of NOCs and how it may affect their existence, objectives, regulation, and behavior. Chapter three proposes a value creation index to measure the contribution of NOCs to social value creation. A conceptual model is also proposed to identify the factors that affect value creation. Chapter four presents the result of an exploratory statistical analysis aimed to determine the relative importance of the drivers of value creation. In addition, the experience of a selected sample of NOCs is analyzed in detail, and lessons of general applicability are derived. Finally, Chapter five summarizes the conclusions.

Ownership and Control of Oil examines government decisions about how much control to exert over the petroleum industry, focusing on the role of National Oil Companies in the production of crude oil since the nationalizations in the 1970s. What are the motives for which some producing states opt for less and NOT more control of their oil production sector? When can International Oil Companies enter the upstream industry of producing states and under what conditions? The diversity of policy choices across producers provides the stage for this investigation: different theoretical explanations are confronted, with the empirical evidence, with the aim of finally proposing an interdisciplinary framework of analysis to explain who controls oil production around the world. This book is intended for both specialists and general readers who have an interest in the issue of government control of the petroleum industry. Due to its multidisciplinary approach, the book is aimed at a large academic public composed of scholars of Political Science, International Political Economy, Comparative Politics, and Middle East Area Studies. Moreover, this book should be relevant to international consultants, industry professionals and decision-makers in countries assessing their experience with existing control structures as well as the many countries in the process of joining the ‘petroleum club’ of oil producing nations.

Energy transition is a complex global problem, with governance and policies cutting across multiple legal silos including human rights, environment, international economics, finance, energy, law of the sea, and transnational commerce. As of yet, there is no comprehensive treatment of the legal principles governing energy transition as a whole. Furthermore, energy transition must solve a trilemma that pits energy equity (the need to provide access to energy needed to fuel human development) and energy security (the need to provide resilient and reliable energy systems) against environmental sustainability. Without a comprehensive understanding of these issues, law and policy-makers risk exacerbating rather than resolving the underlying problems. Principles of International Energy Transition Law introduces the energy transition problem by situating the climate emergency in its broader energy and development context, showing how global energy value chains are deeply enmeshed in and drive global economic and human development. It combines the different legal perspectives in one consistent analysis by outlining their interactions and showing how they can be reconciled. The book discusses thirty-two international legal principles governing different aspects of the energy transition trilemma's three parts. It then uses a commons governance perspective to propose a holistic approach to applying and balancing these different parts and their different legal principles. Highlighted sections summarise the most important concepts and ideas for easy reference, making the title particularly accessible for students and policy-makers as well as law practitioners.

The book provides a systematic examination of the legal, fiscal and institutional frameworks for the commercial development of petroleum and solid mineral resources in Africa. First, it considers the values, assumptions, and guiding principles underpinning legislation and governance in Africa’s extractive sector. It then provides detailed and comparative evaluations of regulatory frameworks, pricing, local content, procurement, sales, and contractual arrangements across African extractive industries. Further, the book assesses how questions of business and human rights risks, accountability, corporate social responsibility, waste and pollution control, environmental justice, and participatory development have been addressed to date, and how they could be addressed better in the future. Enhancing readers’ understanding of the geography, sources and scope of extractive resources in Africa, the book explains how corporations can effectively identify, mitigate and prevent legal and business risks when investing in African extractive industries. Lastly, it discusses the innovative legal strategies and tools needed to achieve a sustainable and rights-based extractive industry.Written in a user-friendly style, the book offers a valuable resource for corporations, investors, environmental and human rights administrators, advocates, policymakers, judges, international negotiators, government officials and consultants who advise on, or are interested in, petroleum and solid mineral investments in Africa. It also offers students and researchers an authoritative guidebook to the current state of extractive industry laws and institutions in Africa. Numerous examples of how international legal norms could be used to help revitalize the underlying legal and fiscal regimes in African extractive industries – to make them more robust, accountable, sustainable and rights-based – round out the coverage

This detailed case study of Gazprom explores motivation behind the company's foreign policies, it's strategies and tactics. It examines the challenges Gazprom faces in the European market and emphasizes the role of politics in Russsia's gas trade.

This book discusses the strategic shift in ownership of Aramco, the Saudi Arabian Oil Company, and its potential impact on Aramco's role in a post- privatized world. Scheduled to become an IPO in 2018, Aramco is on the verge of becoming the largest IPO on the market. As the world’s largest oil and gas company, Aramco’s impending privatization has important implications for the world’s petroleum market. This book, therefore, undertakes an analysis of Aramco, examining its history, its current role in Saudi Arabia’s economy, and its future role as an IPO. The chapters highlight the likely outcomes for Aramco in proceeding with its planned IPO and privatization, as well as the various policy options and models available to it by drawing on the privatization of other national oil companies in Norway , Russia, Brazil, and China. The book also explores the complexities that will be involved in transforming Saudi Aramco to a privatized company—albeit with significant government oversight and control—and addresses key questions on the issues likely to be faced, such as IPO pricing, the listing, domain, and market capacity, and potential stakeholders. As such, this book will be of interest to academic researchers studying energy economics, energy policy, and the political economy of the Middle East, as well as private sector decision makers in energy related fields, international organizations, international oil companies, energy commodity traders, and public sector energy policy makers with interest in Saudi Arabia and Aramco’s IPO.