Daniel Tergin

Oil-exporting nations are seeking the capital, technology and management skills of the very international oil companies they shut the door on in the 1970's. Driving the changed relationship is broadened competition for market share needed investments that meet the double criteria of economic and environmental competitiveness. Now flat, oil demand could increase by 20 percent in the next decade, pushed by Asia's economic growth. Evening with the opening of Russia, most increased production can be expected from the Middle East, maintaining that troubled region's strategic importance.