ABSTRACT

This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the key concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book presents the relationship between oil companies and governments in the UK and Norway has changed significantly, with the bargaining position of the governments gradually improving at the expense of the oil companies. It examines that when the state assumes control over one of the most profitable fields of economic activity, the balance of power between the public and the private sector. The learning process since the early 1960s has enabled the UK and Norway governments to operate on a less unequal basis with the oil companies. Confronted with the issues related to a national oil industry, the UK and Norwegian states, at least under Labour governments, have acted contrary to both the prescriptions of orthodox neo-classical economic theory and to the anticipations of orthodox Marxist theory.