Petroleum Exploration and ProductionRights : Allocation Strategies and Design Issues

Tordo, Silvana ; Johnston, David ; Johnston, Daniel

World Bank

关键词: ACCESS TO INFORMATION;    ACCOUNTING;    AFFILIATED ORGANIZATIONS;    AMORTIZATION;    AUCTION;   

DOI  :  10.1596/978-0-8213-8167-0
RP-ID  :  51840

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Petroleum has become an integral part oftoday's global economy and a key component of manynational economies. Hence, the presence of petroleum inmeaningful quantities can have important economic,developmental, and strategic consequences for a country.While a country's petroleum resource base is a gift ofnature, translating this resource into saleable crude oilrequires investment and effort. Whether governments chooseto invest directly or allow private investors to do so,their primary concern should be to maximize the socialbenefits derived from the exploitation of the resource base.In practice, however, defining what constitutes maximumsocial welfare is essentially a political question, whichhelps explain the variety of objectives pursued bygovernments over time. In order to exploit their naturalresources efficiently, many governments rely on private oilcompanies. Governments have a challenging task in decidingwhich companies should be awarded the exclusive rights toexplore, develop, and produce their resources, and on whatconditions such rights should be awarded. There is littleempirical documentation on the design and relativeeffectiveness of alternative systems for the allocation ofpetroleum exploration, development, and production (E&P)rights and their policy implications. This paper analyzesthe available evidence on the advantages and disadvantagesof various practices used by petroleum producing countriesto allocate petroleum E&P rights, and draws conclusionsabout the optimal design of E&P allocation systems.