Etude du CERI
Les Études du CERI

The series features expert analyses and forecasts on international “topics in the news”. It offers independent and thoroughly researched insights on a country, a region, an industry sector, a geopolitical issue or an economic phenomenon. It has the characteristics of both a policy paper series and an academic publication. Most of the time, the texts result from a recent fieldwork by the author.  
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The Etudes du CERI can be freely consulted on this website one year after publication. More than 150 papers have been published since 1995. Past issues become available online free of charge one year after their publication.

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Issue 2012

ROUSSEAU Isabelle, Etude N°183
Can Latin American Oil and Gas Companies Break Free of Their Nationalized Past ?

Abstract

Latin America's national oil companies, created at various times during the twentieth century, have each evolved in a different way. The two main companies – Petroleos de Mexico (Pemex) and Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) – provide excellent illustrations of the rich diversity of organizational and industrial development. Many factors – such as the importance of earth quakes – explain the diversity.
Nevertheless, the role of governments during the period of nationalizations is key. It was then that the relationships between the owners of natural resources, public operators, regulators, the finance ministries, and international operators were defined. This process shaped the companies' institutional structures (path dependency) and set the parameters for future entrepreneurial dynamism. The path by which each of these enterprises developed continues to affect their culture as evidenced by the recent reforms which attempted to restructure Pemex and PDVSA.

 

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