ABSTRACT
In the last analysis attitudes toward the operations of the international petroleum firms are likely to be determined more by the views held about prices than by those about any other single aspect of the industry. Thus, there has been much controversy over oil prices, controversy often characterized more by misunderstanding, confused analysis and inconsistent argument than by clear presentation of the essential issues. Some of the confusion and inconsistency has been the natural result of the special pleading of different vested interests, but much of it has derived from a genuine failure to understand the significance of the role and structure of the international firms in the industry and of prices themselves. Most of the controversy has been centred on the price of crude oil; the issue of whether prices were in some sense ‘too’ high or ‘too’ low became thoroughly confused with the question of why they were the one or the other.
