Diffusion of technology to national oil production companies in developing countries
By: John L. Enos
This study explores the extent to which various national oil companies are adopting advances in oil technology. Advances occur at intervals that are impossible to predict accurately in advance, but then most national oil companies are not at the technological frontier, and so their task is to become familiar with and, where possible, assimilate advances made elsewhere. The few national oil companies that are innovative – Statoil, through close and harmonious relations with the Norwegian government and Petrobras, in deep offshore drilling – are far outweighed in number by the many smaller, less sophisticated national oil companies of Central Asia, the Middle East and Africa. The responses of this latter group to technological advances are less well reported; yet, given the importance of the national oil companies’ revenues in their local economies, of greater consequence.
The aim of this research is to find out more about the patterns of adoption of economic advances in the developing countries by their national oil companies, concentrating on technological advances but also considering other activities that permeate the oil and gas industries.
Categories / Energy Economics, Oil