United States, OPEC, and multinational oil

Book · Sat Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1977

OSTI ID:6309644

Wyant, F R

The three main parts of this study correspond to the three major structural changes that have occurred in the international petroleum industry since World War II: (1) the transformation of the international petroleum industry from cooperation among a few companies to competition among hundreds of companies; (2) the progression of the major oil producing and exporting nations from a loose confederation to a formidable cartel; and (3) the passage of the major consuming nations, and particularly of the United States, from a position of relative energy self-sufficiency to increasing dependence upon foreign sources of oil. Part I provides an analysis of multinational oil operations and tests the assumption that oil companies benefit from and support OPEC; Part II provides an evaluation of OPEC and tests the assumption that OPEC needs or uses the oil companies to survive; and Part III assesses the consumer nation market position and tests the assumption that the US government can unilaterally restructure the international petroleum market to the advantage of the United States. In addition, this study reports the results of two statistical regression analyses. The first analysis measures the petroleum industry investment response to changes in the market environment as measured by profit changes. This helps in the analysis of industry behavior and has important policy implications for both producer and consumer nations. The second analysis measures the internal distribution of shut-in capacity in relation to OPEC member wealth. This is important in the evaluation of OPEC strength.

• OSTI ID: 6309644
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

02 PETROLEUM
021000* -- Petroleum-- Legislation & Regulations
29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
294002 -- Energy Planning & Policy-- Petroleum
AGREEMENTS
CARTELS
COMPETITION
EMBARGOES
EVALUATION
EXPORTS
GLOBAL ASPECTS
GOVERNMENT POLICIES
IMPORTS
INDUSTRY
INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENTS
INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION
INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
INTERVENORS
INVESTMENT
MULTINATIONAL ENTERPRISES
NORTH AMERICA
OPEC
PETROLEUM INDUSTRY
PROFITS
SYSTEMS ANALYSIS
USA
VERTICAL DIVESTITURE