ABSTRACT
The quantitative analysis has uncovered that the context shaped by geology, technical know-how of the National Oil Companies (NOC), and international oil prices counts only partly for the upstream sector policy pursued by oil producing countries. It is the extent of national oil reliance and executive constraints which shape the oil upstream sector policy adopted by state leaders and the executive given their primary aim of political survival. To better understand the relevance of these driving forces at play, two case studies in the following section, on Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), are to offer closer insights into the functioning of a closed and respectively, open oil upstream sector. The case studies begin with some historical background based on secondary literature and continue with the discussion of the analytical framework in reliance on primary data cross-checked with secondary literature, where existent.
