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State Energy Conglomerates Dominate the World of Big Oil : The Conflict between Democratic (Private) Capitalism and State Capitalism

By Andis Kaulins

Calling private-sector oil companies "Big Oil" is really a misnomer, since state-owned energy conglomerates now dominate the world markets. David Brooks at the New York Times discusses The Larger Struggle writing:

"In the democratic capitalist world we have oil companies, like Exxon Mobil, BP and Royal Dutch Shell, that make money for shareholders.
In the state capitalist world there are government-run enterprises like Gazprom, Petrobras, Saudi Aramco, Petronas, Petróleos de Venezuela, China National Petroleum Corporation and the National Iranian Oil Company. These companies create wealth for the political cliques, and they, in turn, have the power of the state behind them.
With this advantage, state energy companies have been absolutely crushing the private-sector energy companies. In America, we use the phrase Big Oil to describe Exxon Mobil, BP, Royal Dutch Shell and others. But that just shows how parochial we are. In fact, none of these private companies make it on a list of the world?s top 13 energy companies. A generation ago, the biggest multinationals produced well more than half of the world?s oil and gas. But now, according to Bremmer, they produce just 10 percent of the world?s oil and gas and hold only about 3 percent of the world?s reserves."

Hat tip to CaryGEE.

Full post as published by LawPundit on June 15, 2010 (boomark / email).