ABSTRACT
This chapter devotes assessment of two cases which have, by now a relatively long history, and exemplify two different strategies by the importer. The case of Ente Nazionale Idrocarburi (ENI) and specifically of Agip, the oil company within the ENI group is one in which a country, faced with excessive dependence on the multinationals, tries to build up a national company that will check the international majors without aiming to be a substitute for them. The case of Japan, on the other hand, is one in which a government pressures the existing industrial groupings into forming various joint ventures to search cooperatively for oil abroad, but refrains from creating a true oil company. Governments of the oil importing countries, particularly those in which no international oil company has its headquarters. Thus the view of potential for a greatly increased direct government role in the international trade of crude oil is one of scepticism.
