ABSTRACT
Although there are several dozen oil Companies with significant operations outside their country of origin, and which can therefore properly be classed as international firms, this number was very limited not much over a decade ago. The decisive role of a handful of major international Companies in shaping the history of the international industry is clear from even the brief outline presented in Chapter III. Quite plainly many aspects of the structure of the industry can be traced to the policies of small groups of people in a position to take actions that inevitably had a noticeable impact on the course of events. One cannot explain, or even sensibly discuss, any of the important economic characteristics of this industry without reference to the policies of the major firms. Conversely, however, one cannot appraise the policies of individual firms without reference both to the technology of the industry (i.e. the character of exploration and discovery, of production, transport, refining, and marketing), to government policies, and to the institutional and market structure in which the firms found themselves and to which they were forced to adapt.
