SOAS Research Online

Abstract

The thesis is a study of equity joint ventures between producing country governments and foreign oil companies in the Middle East. These joint ventures became the dominant form of arrangement for producing oil from new acreage between 1957-1972, and after 1972 it was attempted to extend the principle of these ventures to cover the major Middle Eastern operating companies. The thesis attempts to examine the factors which led to, and shaped, the development of joint ventures in Middle East oil, both in the general context, and also in terms of individual countries. Following from this, the effect of the development of these joint ventures on the industry is also considered. The method by which the above objectives are sought is as follows. An examination is made of the economic and managerial problems which might be associated with the setting up and operation of a joint venture. In the light of these difficulties, all the joint ventures agreements signed between 1957-1972 are examined in an effort to discover what mechanisms are incorporated in the agreements to deal with these problems. This is done not only with respect to different activities in oil such as exploration etc., but also in terms of the general principles of joint ventures. Experience from Egyptian joint ventures is then used to examine how far the agreements have succeeded in solving some of the problems discussed earlier in the context of operating joint ventures. In this way some aspects of the actual and potential contribution of joint ventures to the development of the oil industry can be assessed. Finally, the findings which emerge from the above analysis are related to an evaluation of some aspects of participation in the form and context in which it arose from 1967 on.