ECONOMIC AND TECHNOLOGICAL FACTORS OF POSTGLOBALIZATION OF THE OIL AND GAS COMPLEX

Since the end of the XX century factors of economic and technological post-globalization began to form in the global oil and gas complex (OGC). The first factor was the increasing competition between international (IOC) and national (NOC) oil companies for a position in the global oil market. The second factor is the progressive deterioration of hydrocarbon reserves. Motivated by these two factors, IOCs at the beginning of the XX century restructured the global OGC and created in it a separate structure uniting IOCs and their first-tier contractor companies – engineering, production and EPC companies. The restructuring allowed IOCs to significantly increase the efficiency of R&D, which resulted in the development of technologies for highly profitable development of deep-water offshore fields and shale hydrocarbons. Due to technological limitations, both types of hydrocarbon resources remain largely inaccessible to NOCs today, despite large amounts of investment in R&D. A sign of the post-globalization of global OGC is the blocking of the transfer of highly efficient innovative technologies, as well as related investments and qualified personnel from more developed IOCs to less developed NOCs. As a result, the global NGK actually fell into three. The first is made up of IOCs and first-tier contractor companies controlled by them. Based on their technological superiority, the participants of this OGC are increasingly focusing their activity on the development of deep-water deposits and shale hydrocarbons. The second OGC unites large national companies such as CNPC, Saudi Aramco, Petrobras, which, due to large-scale investment in R&D, are trying to catch up with IOCs in terms of technological development. The third OGC consists of small private oil companies and oilfield service companies in oil producing countries that operate fields at the stages of declining production, which were abandoned by IOCs. It is very likely that in the future the post-globalization of the global OGC will continue. Given the exponential growth in the rate at which new technologies are being developed, introduced and changing business activities, a situation may arise in which even significant investments by NOCs in R&D will be insufficient to achieve technological parity with IOCs.