National Oil Companies and Climate-Related Financial Risk: Analysis and Policy Approaches

One of the biggest questions new producers face as they plan for the future is how to make decisions about state equity stakes in upstream projects. For many countries, state participation via national oil companies has been an important component of strategies to retain a significant share of the benefits of oil and gas projects for the country. The global energy transition is impacting the strategies of oil and gas companies worldwide, however, with prospects for lower profits over the long term and the viability of some projects imperiled. With this in mind, this session focused on how governments and their NOCs can assess the robustness of state investment under a variety of long-term energy scenarios, and how to manage risk that some public spending could end up stranded. We discussed the results of new research on national oil companies in the energy transition, and the approaches that new producer governments are taking to hone their strategies.

This meeting was virtual, with discussions under Chatham House Rule. It brought together government officials and NOC executives from our member countries.