ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the global strategic approach of the international oil companies in order to test the hypothesis that their regional strategy in the Arab world is different because their global positions happen to vary. With the exception of their attitude towards developing natural gas resources, the hypothesis should be rejected. The international oil companies must take Arab oil into consideration anyhow, and must bet on whether Arab oil will be traded through a disintegrated international market, or whether vertically integrated channels will take on renewed importance. The oil companies were, at the same time, financial giants and very liquid, to the point that they sometimes had problems investing all the cash that was bulging out of their pockets. Thus the investments made by the international oil companies in the coal business are best described as hostage-taking: it is a way of having some presence in a line of business that is experiencing some expansion today.
