The long-term view: Energy Investment Contracts and the State

摘要

If there is a common thread to several of the articles contained in this issue of I.E.L.R., it is the tension in the energy sector between the need for long-term private investment, on the one hand, and state control over assets considered of vital strategic importance for a country's economy, on the other, against a backdrop of rapidly changing economic circumstances. State control over energy assets is clearly a preponderant pattern worldwide. Some 80 per cent of of the world's natural resources are now thought to be firmly in government hands, usually by way of ownership and/or control of production by NOCs. The reality is that the lOCs have been fighting something of a rearguard action for many years to preserve their role and influence in the energy arena.