Petroleum politics

As competition continues for a vital resource, the strategic calculations of major and minor countries alike place prominent emphasis on the pumping, refining, transport, sale and use of petroleum products.

The Anglo-American Petroleum Agreement of 1944 tried to extend these restrictions internationally but was opposed by the industry in the United States and so Franklin Roosevelt withdrew from the deal.

Venezuela was the first country to move towards the establishment of OPEC by approaching Iran, Gabon, Libya, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia in 1949, but OPEC was not set up until 1960, when the United States forced import quotas on Venezuelan and Persian Gulf oil in order to support the Canadian and Mexican oil industries[citation needed].

Cullen Hendrix, author of the academic article "Oil Prices and Interstate Conflict", focuses on creating a more sound measurement of an index, building off of Colgan and Weeks indices respectfully.

A petro-state GDP will grow, offering the opportunity for a more diverse industry, which in turn gives more bargaining chips in terms of global negotiations.

In a 1999 speech, Dick Cheney, the US vice president and former CEO of Halliburton (one of the world's largest energy services corporations), said, "By some estimates there will be an average of two per cent annual growth in global oil demand over the years ahead along with conservatively a three per cent natural decline in production from existing reserves.

Our constituency is not only oilmen from Louisiana and Texas, but software writers in Massachusetts and specialty steel producers in Pennsylvania.

In 2007, Russia signed agreements with Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan to connect their oil and gas fields to the Russian pipeline system effectively killing the undersea route.

Enrique Mosconi, the director of the Argentine state owned oil company Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales (YPF, which was the first state owned oil company in the world, preceding the French Compagnie française des pétroles (CFP, French Company of Petroleums, today TotalEnergies), created in 1924 by the conservative Raymond Poincaré), advocated oil nationalization in the late 1920s among Latin American countries.

[17] The anti-nuclear movement received some funding early on from fossil fuel companies, including petroleum interests.

The Central Intelligence Agency and MI6 responded by supporting a coup against its democratically elected prime minister, Mosaddeq, and brought the former Shah's son to power in 1953.

Iraq holds the world's second-largest proven oil reserves, with increasing exploration expected to enlarge them beyond 200 billion barrels (3.2×1010 m3) of "high-grade crude, extraordinarily cheap to produce.

"[23] Organizations such as the Global Policy Forum (GPF) have asserted that Iraq's oil is "the central feature of the political landscape" there, and that as a result of the 2003 invasion,"'friendly' companies expect to gain most of the lucrative oil deals that will be worth hundreds of billions of dollars in profits in the coming decades."

According to GPF, U.S. influence over the 2005 Constitution of Iraq has made sure it "contains language that guarantees a major role for foreign companies.

[26] Although Norway relies heavily on natural gas and oil for export income, the country consumes almost none of the petroleum resources that they produce.

These industries are a vital part of Norway's economy, making up nearly 50% of the country's total export value and accounts for 17% of its GDP.

Although there have been tensions on certain issues, the Labour Party, the Conservative Party, and the Progress Party make up the majority of support for the current petroleum policy in Parliament.”[29] Norway has avoided the “oil curse” or “dutch disease” Dutch disease that many oil producing countries have experienced, in part because it began to harvest petroleum resources at a time when the government regulation was well developed and already in an economically strong position: “Norway had the advantage of entering its oil era with a mature, open democracy as well as bureaucratic institutions with experience regulating other natural resource industries (hydropower generation, fishing, and mining for example)”.

[28] As Norway began to exploit their petroleum resources, the government took steps to ensure that the natural resource industry did not deplete other industries in Norway by funneling profits from the state owned operations into a pension fund known as the Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG).

The GPFG is the world's largest sovereign wealth fund and was established for the purpose of investing in the surplus revenues of the petroleum sector in Norway.

The Nigerian economy is heavily dependent on the oil sector, which accounts for 98% percent of export earnings and 83% of federal government revenues as well as generating 14% of its GDP.

Even with the substantial oil wealth, Nigeria ranks as one of the poorest countries in the world, with a $1,000 per capita income and more than 70 percent of the population living in poverty.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF), which recently praised the Nigerian government for adopting tighter fiscal policies, will be allowed to monitor Nigeria without having to disburse loans to the country.

[35] Saudi Arabia ranks as the largest exporter of petroleum, and plays a leading role in OPEC, its decisions to raise or cut production almost immediately impact world oil prices.

[40] Larry Elliott argued that "with the help of its Saudi ally, Washington is trying to drive down the oil price by flooding an already weak market with crude.

[44] In January 1980, President Jimmy Carter explicitly declared: "An attempt by any outside force to gain control of the Persian Gulf region will be regarded as an assault on the vital interests of the United States.

In recent years, under the influence of President Chavez, the Venezuelan government has reduced PdVSA's previous autonomy and amended the rules regulating the country's hydrocarbons sector.

PDVSA is now used as a cash-cow and as an employer-of-last-resort;[48] foreign oil businesses were nationalised and the government refused to pay compensation.