State oil companies have diverse strategies

The Journal's series on state-owned oil companies continues with profiles on seven more companies which already are, or could be, important players in the international oil industry. The first part of this series appeared last August. It featured the world's producing giants. This installment shows that national oil companies are definitely not cut from the same mold and that they have diverse mandates from their countries or have developed unusual niches in the oil world. The objective of these profiles is not to fully cover the plans and performance of such companies. That is done regularly in weekly editions of OGJ. Rather, these articles are written by a team of experienced Journal editors to characterize the individual companies, describe their mandates and organization, and present some professional background information, when available, on those in top management with the hope of getting some insight into the corporate cultures. The companies covered come from Brazil, China, Finland, Japan, Norway, Oman, and Vietnam. In addition the article profiles Borealis Holding A/S, created from the merger of two state companies from Norway and Finland