Introduction

Valérie Marcel, Oil Titans: National Oil Companies in the Middle East, The Royal Institute of International Affairs, London, or Brookings Institution Press, Baltimore 2006, ISBN 13:978-0-8157-5474-9; 322 pages. In today's world of high energy prices and increasing competition for access to the world's remaining oil & gas reserves, the politicisation of our global energy industry and the resurgent role of national oil companies (NOCs) are once again at the forefront of energy related discussions. Yet relatively little is known publicly about the inner workings of the NOCs of the ...