| 摘要 |
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1. Research Purpose
Increasingly, we are witnessing active involvement and strong support by the government in energy resource development in many countries. Intensified competition to secure energy supplies by major consuming countries combined with re-emerging sentiment towards resource nationalism have led to strong empowerment to the national oil companies (NOCs) of the resource-rich countries. On the other hand, the access to oil and gas reserves for the international oil companies (IOCs) including the once-dominant oil majors is being narrowed and increasingly restricted.
Against the backdrop of this changing landscape of the control over energy resources and growing NOC dominance, the understanding of the business strategies of the NOCs of resource-owning countries becomes necessary for our effective participation in overseas resource development. In this respect, this study examines behavioral characteristics and growth strategies of the NOCs. This is the second study in a series of three-year in-depth study on oil and gas companies, examining the majors, NOCs, and independent oil companies each year sequentially from 2009 to 2011.
2. Summary
The behavioral characteristics and organizational structures of the NOCs differ depending on the home country's circumstances such as oil and gas endowments, political and economic situations, the magnitudes and origins of the companies. As such, it is useful to sort heterogenous NOCs into some subgroups, noting on some common features that are distinctive for each grouping. Accordingly, we have classified the NOCs into three types: (1) traditional, (2) overseas expansion-focused, and (3) private firm-like types.
The first type includes NOCs of countries with vast oil and gas reserves such as Saudi Aramco, KPC, NIOC and PDVSA. The home country's resource development is usually monopolized by the NOCs, and foreign participation is largely restricted. Since their home countries are endowed with huge reserves, these NOCs do not show much interest in advancing into other countries' upstream business. Typically, high priority is placed on enhancing the oil and gas production capacity, which will allow them to expand their dominance in world oil and gas market and bring in greater revenue from oil and gas exports.
The second type is the NOCs of large producer and also of large consumer countries such as those of China, Russia and India. Even though they themselves are the state-owned companies of relatively resource-rich countries and hence hold a dominant position in their own countries' resource development, they actively seek opportunities for participation in overseas E&P business in order to secure energy supplies to meet their ever-expanding home energy demands. Not only they strive to advance into overseas upstream activities, but also they aggressively expand into mid- and downstream areas for the purpose of positioning themselves to maximize market values of their oil and gas sales. Such growth strategies tend to make them large in size relative to other types. Moreover, they often are not wholly-owned by the states, even though their governments hold majority shares. That is, they are partially listed on the stock exchange, which makes it easier for them to raise necessary capital for investment.
The third type is the NOCs that behave much like privately-owned companies, such as Petronas, Statoil and Petrobras. They share some similarities with the second type in that both actively seek international expansion in their business strategies. What distinguishes them apart are that they are more innovative in nature and possess advanced technologies in some specific areas of E&P, accumulated from resource development experiences in their own countries. Their technological advantages and behavioral traits make them preferred business partners of other NOCs, and they are often regarded as the role models for growth strategies for other smaller, less established, NOCs.
In addition to examining the business strategies and asset portfolios of some major NOCs for each type in detail, we have conducted empirical analyses on the performance of the NOCs. With the top 100 oil and gas companies' data from Energy Intelligence from 2000 to 2008, we have analyzed to identify the contributing factors for NOC performance in terms of total revenue and production efficiency, using the panel regression analysis and stochastic frontier analysis. The results show that the share of government's ownership exhibits negative impacts on both the revenue and efficiency of NOCs, which is consistent with the results of existing literature. Vertical integration and horizontal diversification are found to have positive effects on the production efficiency. Moreover, in comparison with the IOCs, the effects of employees and oil and gas production on total revenue are weaker for NOCs.
3. Policy Implications
With growing NOC dominance, the cooperation with the NOCs of resource-owing countries is imperative for expanding our overseas E&P participation. As with any other business arear, the room for cooperation can open up from a complementary relationship, and hence, the keys for our effective participation strategies for overseas resource development can be found in complementing their limitations and satisfying their needs.
The resource-rich countries are often excessively dependent on the revenues of oil and gas, and many of them desire to diversify the drivers for their economic developments. For many less developed countries, the pressing needs are investment in social overhead capital and energy infrastructure. In these respects, our merits portrayed in our track record of unprecedented economic development and strength in infrastructure construction can suitably complement the needs and weaknesses of the resource-owning countries. Establishing long-term, mutually beneficial economic partnership with them will create favorable environment for our firms' access to their oil and gas reserves, and would withstand any possibility of adverse effects from sentiment of resource nationalism.
Apart from such efforts, the elements that can facilitate cooperation with NOCs are E&P technologies, especially the kinds that NOCs are in need of. After all, it is the sought-after technology that would best complement the NOCs at a company-level, making the firm a preferred partner in E&P business. Thus, the most effective and concrete way for expanding our overseas resource development is to build technological capacity and E&P expertise. One way to acquire them in a short period of time is through mergers and acquisitions(M&As) of companies holding advanced technologies and skilled labors, such as independent oil companies specializing in specific fields. Recently, there have been several cases of M&As as a part of efforts to build up E&P capacities of our so-called national champions. If such investment were to result in effective scaling up of our companies, not only in appearance but also in their internal capacities, we need to pay close attention to the post-merger integration process so that the skills and expertise can be optimally retained from the acquired firms.
While the government-driven expansion of overseas upstream activities can be effective, it can have side effects. Aggressive M&As, which is one advantage of having government backing, often undertake risky investment that private firms would not normally bear. Moreover, political and strategic considerations are often taken into account in such decisions. As such, a potential peril in building up the capacity of national champions through M&As is an over-exposure to market risks and resulting undue indirect liability to the government and hence to the public. Therefore, in pursuing the government policy of active overseas expansion in resource development, maintaining sound financial structure and operational efficiency of our NOCs should not be disregarded. One way to balance the two properly is to instill market forces in investment decisions at least partly by opening up the ownership of NOCs through initial public offering. By doing so, the NOCs would enhance efficiency and economic resilience to changing market conditions.
Language : Korean |
