Resource Nationalism Makes the World Poorer

From a letter sent to the Financial Times by Sacha Kumaria, a Senior Adviser at Cambridge Centre for Energy Studies:

However, the renationalisation of energy assets in countries such as Russia and Venezuela, and long-standing prohibitions on foreign access into major producers such as Saudi Arabia, are curtailing the spread of such technology. State-owned companies have a different economic calculus to the private oil majors, and must balance their investment in research and development and new infrastructure with their “welfare function” to guarantee government revenues. It is this shortcoming, rather than a dearth of black gold itself, that may ultimately leave the world poorer.