National oil companies refer to oil companies invested by the state with the mission of realizing national strategic goals. More than 80 countries in the world have established national oil companies. At present, national oil companies still play an extremely important role in the world oil industry, and together with major international oil companies, they have become the main force in the world oil exploration and development field. In the process of development, national oil companies have also experienced the impact and baptism of privatization, but some of them have persisted today and developed, showing a strong development momentum.
Since Argentina established the first real national oil company in the world in 1922, the importance of the national oil company in the international oil market has been paid more and more attention by governments of various countries, and it has become an important part and main driving force of the world oil industry.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the government's intervention in the oil industry meant the germination of national oil companies. Important events in this period include: before World War I, the British Navy signed a long-term oil purchase contract with BP (the predecessor of BP), and the British government subsequently controlled 5 1% of the company's shares; After the victory of the October Revolution, the Soviet Union established a state agency to manage important oil fields in the Caucasus. In order to take over some oil rights in Germany, the French government initiated the establishment of the French oil company; The Italian government set up its own national oil company to find oil resources.
Argentina is a pioneer in establishing national oil companies in developing countries. At the beginning of the 20th century, the major international oil companies headed by "Seven Sisters" gradually established an oil monopoly system that comprehensively controlled the whole western world's oil exploration, production, processing, storage and transportation, trade and price integration. Developing countries are unwilling to be controlled and deprived by international oil for a long time, and the movement to recover oil sovereignty has begun. In Argentina, oil was discovered during drilling in 1907 and 19 18 respectively. The government established the Bureau of Petroleum and Minerals to develop oil fields, and later reorganized it into the National Oil Company (YPF), which is responsible for oil exploration and development activities at home and abroad.
From 65438 to 0938, the Mexican government confiscated the oil assets of foreign companies in Mexico, nationalized them and handed over the oil business to Pemex, thus producing the first modern oil resource country. Later, with the development of African independence movement, the wave of recovering oil sovereignty and establishing national oil companies rose again in Africa. The establishment of Mexico's national oil company aroused strong repercussions in the western world at that time, and was threatened politically and sanctioned economically by Anglo-American oil company and its government. However, the Mexican people and the national oil company withstood tremendous pressure and persisted. In the 1960s and 1970s, a series of oil fields were discovered one after another, becoming important oil-producing countries in the world.
From the end of World War II to the 1950s, a number of national oil companies were born in the world. After the war, the United States carried out the Marshall Plan, which allowed western European countries to use a large number of cheap oil in the Middle East, and promoted the rapid transformation of the energy structure in western Europe from coal to oil. At that time, most of the oil in the capitalist world was controlled by the oil "Seven Sisters" dominated by American capital. In order to break the monopoly of foreign companies on the domestic oil market and ensure the domestic energy supply, some western European countries have set up their own national oil companies. France established the Petroleum Exploration Bureau in 1945 to look for oil in its own land and French colonies. 1966, the bureau developed into ERAP oil exploration company; 1976, the bureau developed into Elf-Aquitaine company. 1953 After nearly three years of brewing, Italy established Eni Group, a national oil company, on the basis of state-owned enterprises such as AGIP. 1950, Austria ended the occupation of Austria by Britain, the United States, France and the Soviet Union and established the national oil company OMV.
The 1970s was the climax of the emergence of national oil companies in the world. The establishment of national oil companies by members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries is the most important event in this wave of nationalization. Driven by this wave, many resource countries in the Middle East have nationalized their oil industries. Among them, the major Arab resource countries basically adopt the way of gradually increasing the proportion of state shares, and convert the oil assets held by foreigners into state-owned assets. Venezuela and other countries take the way of canceling the franchise system first and then accepting foreign oil assets, and hand over the oil assets they have taken over to the newly established national oil company for management and operation. Some countries, such as Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iraq, have even completely monopolized the domestic oil industry by national oil companies, and foreign companies are not allowed to intervene. This is a great revolution in the world oil industry. The seven oil sisters who have long controlled the oil resources of resource countries, controlled oil production, monopolized the world oil market and manipulated oil prices through the franchise system have been driven out of the upstream oil industry of third world countries. As a result, most of the world's oil reserves and production have been transferred to the state-owned oil companies in resource countries.
The successive oil crises and high oil prices in the 1970s had a great impact on domestic oil consumption and promoted the establishment of oil companies in some developed countries. Japan's oil supply basically comes from the Middle East and depends on foreign companies. In order to ensure the oil supply, Japan established the national oil company-Nippon Oil Company, and began to establish strategic oil reserves. The government also actively sponsors private enterprises to develop oil abroad. Canada is an oil-producing country, but its oil production and sales are in the hands of foreign companies dominated by American capital. In order to control the domestic oil market, Canada also established the National Petroleum Company of Canada.
The oil crisis has promoted oil exploration and development in the North Sea of Europe and other parts of the world. Britain, Norway, Denmark and other developed countries and Malaysia, the Philippines, Congo, Angola and other countries have set up national oil companies to protect their oil rights and interests. Some developing oil importing countries, such as Sri Lanka, have also set up national oil companies to control their own oil markets and reduce international risks under the impact of high oil prices.
(2) Characteristics and development trend of national oil companies.
National oil companies are different from ordinary state-owned or state-owned oil companies. They are not only state-owned companies, but also have the basic characteristics of representing the country, safeguarding national rights and interests and serving the overall interests of the country. The background and purpose of establishing national oil companies in different countries are different, which can generally be summarized into the following three categories:
First of all, the national oil companies that develop oil exporting countries are established on the basis of nationalization of the oil industry. Their main task is to take over all foreign oil companies on behalf of the government, manage their assets, and then develop their own oil industry to serve the revitalization of national economy and social development.
Second, countries that rely on oil imports set up national oil companies in order to break the control of foreign oil companies on their own oil supply and monopolize their own oil market, and strategically protect their own oil supply.
Third, oil and gas resource countries set up national oil companies to deal with foreign oil companies on behalf of the government, to be entrusted by the government to manage oil assets, and to recover oil and gas resources that were once occupied cheaply by western oil companies.
The role of national oil companies tends to develop and obey the specific policies of the government at that time. For example, the national oil companies in developing countries often start their business activities from the low-tech field of the oil industry, that is, the sales part; Then it extends to similar fields with complex technology, such as oil refining; Finally, it will enter the exploration and production in the highest technology field. This has become a typical model of state-owned oil companies in developing countries.
From a global perspective, the scale and strength of national oil companies have been strengthened in recent decades. During this period, due to the different national conditions, for various reasons such as improving oil production efficiency, safeguarding national oil interests and solving their own investment shortage, national oil companies have two different development trends: privatization and strengthening state control.
Since 1980s, the privatization of oil fields has risen from Europe and spread to the whole oil field. Britain took the lead in the transition to privatization, abolished the British national oil company and turned to privatization. The trend of privatization has accelerated and expanded rapidly, involving Repsol, Total, Elf-aquitaine, Singapore Oil Company, Petronas Canada, Petronas Peru and Eni Italy to varying degrees.
There are two trends in the privatization movement of petroleum industry. One is the privatization of the oil industry similar to that of Britain and Argentina, where the government gave up control of its own oil industry, state capital withdrew from the oil industry, and the national oil company was cancelled. The other is the privatization of national oil companies by oil-resource countries, which reflects the reform of management system and the opening of oil industry, aiming at invigorating national oil companies, attracting foreign capital and technology to accelerate the development of national oil industry and making national oil companies make greater contributions to their own economic and social development. The basic content of the reform and opening-up of its petroleum industry is to separate government from enterprises, and to reform the state-owned oil company into a joint-stock system to improve its efficiency and benefit, but the government maintains control over the state-owned oil company. The upstream welcomes foreign capital to participate in exploration and development, and the national oil company represents the country to safeguard the rights and interests of oil resources; Open the downstream oil market and let foreign companies participate in the competition, but the state controls oil imports and market prices to a certain extent through the national oil company and sells some "burden" assets. There are indications that the privatization of oil industry in the world will continue, but the national oil companies will not die out, but will continue to play an important role.
Since 1990s, many important oil-producing countries in Latin America, such as Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina, Peru, Ecuador, etc. China has gradually relaxed or lifted its monopoly control over the energy industry, introduced a series of measures for the development of the oil industry, and actively encouraged the introduction of foreign capital and foreign cooperation. After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the oil industries of Russia, Kazakhstan and other CIS countries began to open to the outside world, which opened up new cooperation space for foreign oil companies, capital and technology to intervene. Even Saudi Arabia, an oil-producing country in the Middle East, has not allowed foreign oil companies to enter its own exploration and development market since the nationalization of the oil industry in the 1970s, and has begun to show signs of loosening its policies. The above-mentioned countries have relaxed their control over their own oil industries and opened up their own oil markets, providing an unprecedented broad market for the transnational operations of major international oil companies.
However, in recent years, with the rise of world oil prices, especially since 2003, the voice of oil nationalization in developing countries, especially in Latin America, is growing louder and louder. In a sense, this is undoubtedly the continuation and upgrading of the struggle of oil resource countries to safeguard their own oil rights and interests in the 20th century. The Venezuelan government under the leadership of Chavez has continuously adjusted its oil investment policy, and gradually realized the complete control of its oil property rights and the nationalization of its oil resources through the Venezuelan National Oil Company (PDVSA). Bolivia, Argentina, Colombia and other countries also responded positively and strengthened their control over their oil resources through nationalization to varying degrees.
A comprehensive analysis of the successful cases of oil companies in various countries shows that most of them have the following characteristics:
First of all, they have strong support from their own governments. The government has given great support to the development of state-owned oil companies in diplomacy, policy, taxation and finance. At the same time, national oil companies manage their own oil and gas resources on behalf of the state, safeguard national rights and interests, and pay profits and taxes to the state.
Secondly, relying on the upstream, they gradually established an integrated industrial chain, and their strength was greatly enhanced. Usually, oil storage and production are the biggest advantages of national oil companies. The top 10 oil companies with the largest oil reserves in the world are all national oil companies. When the national oil company was established, the downstream was very weak. In the past, major international oil companies exploited oil in developing countries and then transported crude oil to developed countries for refining and sales. After the mid-1970s, although major international oil companies lost most of their oil and gas fields in developing countries, they still controlled the world oil market, and national oil companies in developing countries had to sell crude oil to them. In order to change this situation, national oil companies in Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Mexico, Iran, Kuwait and other countries have vigorously developed downstream business. They not only vigorously develop oil refining and sales in their own countries, but also enter developed countries in Europe and America to develop their business. Venezuela's national oil company not only has six refineries in China, but also has a 1 1 joint venture refinery abroad, and one joint venture company in California, Germany and Sweden. The downstream business capability even exceeds that of some major international oil companies. After more than 20 years of struggle, the crude oil processing capacity of the above five companies has been greatly improved. 1998 and 198 ranked eighth, third, 10, 13 and 15 among the largest oil refining enterprises in the world respectively. From 65438 to 0998, the refining capacity of national oil companies in the member countries of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries reached 520 million tons, and the sales volume of oil products reached 600 million tons, which completely broke the situation that multinational oil companies dominated refining and sales.
Third, promote the rapid development of the company with international operation. Some oil companies in developing countries have broken the limitation of "setting up stalls" only in their own countries and have gone abroad to participate in the competition on the international stage. Participate in the redistribution of global oil and gas resources upstream, compete for, consolidate and expand market share downstream, and promote the integration of upstream and downstream through internationalization. In this respect, Kuwait National Petroleum Corporation (KPC), Venezuela National Petroleum Corporation (PDVSA), Malaysia National Petroleum Corporation (Petronas) and Brazil National Petroleum Corporation (Petrobras) are all outstanding. For example, Petronas Malaysia has made great progress in international business in just over ten years. From 1990 to 2000, the proportion of international business income in the company's total income rose from zero to 3 1.3%, which promoted the fundamental changes and promotion of the company's various businesses and overall strength, and ranked 86th among the top 500 companies in the world in 2006.
After decades of exploration and development, national oil companies of various countries have become an influential "national team" on the world oil stage by virtue of their resource endowment advantages, years of accumulation and reserve in oil technology, talents and management, and rich experience in international cooperation and transnational operation.
Facing the future, in addition to giving full play to their upstream advantages, oil companies in various countries are striving to accelerate the integration process and the pace of transnational operations, adjust and reform the oil industry structure, enhance their vitality and international competitiveness, and move towards higher goals.