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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: Cogito who wrote (74560)7/3/2008 4:36:34 PM
From: TimF  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 543509
 
My question is, if they are so inefficient, why can't the private oil companies compete with them?

Because they aren't allowed to.

Its not like Saudi Aramco, and Exxon Mobil bid on developing some new field in Saudi. All oil drilling in Saudi is done under the state monopoly. The same holds true for many other nations, and those nations are where the majority of known reserves are located. In many cases (such as Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait) they are also the locations where you have dense and easy to access fields, where oil can be brought from the ground very cheaply.