State oil giants edge out private firms – analyst

12 February 2008 23:22  [Source: ICIS news]

HOUSTON (ICIS news)--State companies continue to shun international oil firms even though there is a shortage of refining capacity for their large national reserves, a leading industry analyst said on Tuesday.

Olivier Abadie, Cambridge Energy Research Associates (CERA) director of downstream oil for Europe, said many of the national companies have an isolationist attitude to the international oil companies (IOCs).

“Shell and Exxon are trying to enter China, but the Chinese say nothing is going on,” Abadie said from the sidelines of the CERA Week refining capacity challenge forum. The CERA Week event runs through Friday.

Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez threatened on Sunday to cut off oil exports to the US following a court ruling to freeze over $12bn (€8.3bn) worth of assets belonging to Venezuela’s state-run PDVSA.

“There is quite a strong opposition to have someone else work in your country,” Abadie said of these issues, adding the international company’s attitudes may also need to change.

“It doesn’t help the IOC’s to be ultra-pushy about it,” Abadie said.

($1=€0.68)

By: Steven McGinn
+1 713 525 2653

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