The National: Resource nationalism on the retreat in a world of shale

Myths of nationhood come in many forms: epic poets, climactic battles, age-old enemies. Possession of a slippery black liquid is also a popular foundation myth, the bedrock of political beliefs from Venezuela and Mexico to Scotland and Iran. But in a world where oil is not so scarce and valuable, is resource nationalism ebbing?

Resource nationalism has been the dominant phenomenon in the past decade of international oil investment. Amid the 1990s’ low oil prices, private companies had been lured back into Latin America, North Africa and Central Asia. But when prices started rising from 2000, governments increased taxes, expropriated or nationalised assets, or engineered the entry of state firms. This happened not only in ideologically hostile jurisdictions such as Argentina, Venezuela and Russia, but in theoretically investor-friendly areas such as Alaska, Alberta, the UK’s North Sea and Australia.

International companies were perceived to have taken advantage of countries such as Russia and Kazakhstan at times of national weakness, and foreign “control” of mineral resources had become intolerable to the public.
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