ABSTRACT
Oil industry executives sometimes like to argue that they work in ‘just another big industry’ and that they should be treated just like other industries. But they are wrong. The oil industry is no ordinary industry, petroleum taxation is no ordinary tax and the surrounding political and economic circumstances are unlike those to be found in any other fiscal area. The imposition of petroleum taxes tends in almost every instance to be accompanied by intense political debate, discussion and tension. Oil is, in short, different, and its extraction and production generates different attitudes and different resulting policies and approaches from those governing other tax measures and policies.
