The Role of National Oil Companies in Today’s World

Analysts point out that a cause of the record levels prices have reached in world oil markets and the increasing interest in energy security and other issues was the structural changes in both the demand and supply of oil.

But there is a change that is important for the present, and which has its implications for the future. This change, often ignored, is the growing role of the national oil companies in the balance of global energy and in the management and stability of the market.
Although the national oil companies vary in their historical development, their relationships with governments, their efficiency, their role in the national economy, and the scope of their operations, it is confirmed today that they collectively own more than 65% of the world’s oil and gas reserves and produce more than half the global oil and gas output.

Dar Al-Hayat