Control of Management and Operations

Abstract

The desire of host governments for equity participation with the concessionaire companies in the oil producing ventures goes back a long way before the foundation of OPEC. But this was a demand that the major oil companies always resisted with all the power and guile at their command, sensing no doubt that such a development would strike at the very roots of their control over the supply arteries of the world oil industry. In the end, it required a collective impetus on the part of OPEC to unblock the path towards participation and the takeover by the host governments of control over crude oil production operations.