All the cool petrostates are doing it!!

Expropriation was a hot topic of study in international politcal economy in the seventies, when it seemed like the phenomenon was going to be a permanent feature. In the eighties, the diffusion of free-market ideas and the collapse of communism rendered that topic pretty much inert. I suspect we’re going to start seeing a few ...

By , a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and co-host of the Space the Nation podcast.

Expropriation was a hot topic of study in international politcal economy in the seventies, when it seemed like the phenomenon was going to be a permanent feature. In the eighties, the diffusion of free-market ideas and the collapse of communism rendered that topic pretty much inert. I suspect we're going to start seeing a few dissertations on the topic sprouting up soon, however. Ecuador, Bolivia, Venezuela... this is definitely a trend. And then there's Russia. Here are the first few paragraphs of Arkady Ostrovsky's "Russian ministry seeks review of oil deals" in the Financial Times: Russia?s natural resources ministry called on Thursday for a review of the two largest foreign oil projects in the country, even as senior Russian officials sought to assure EU leaders that Russia was a reliable energy partner. The ministry said the legal agreements underpinning oil and gas developments on Sakhalin island, on Russia?s eastern flank, were ineffective and should be reviewed. It said it planned to ask the Duma, Russia?s lower house of parliament, to review production-sharing agreements signed in the 1990s, saying they were damaging Russia?s national interests. Any review of PSAs would threaten the two largest foreign investments in Russia: the Sakhalin-1 project, on which ExxonMobil and its partners have already spent nearly $5bn; and the Sakhalin-2 project, in which Royal Dutch Shell and its partners are investing $20bn. However, two Russian ministers insisted separately that all Moscow?s agreements with foreign energy companies would be honoured, suggesting a rift had opened within the government. Of course, such a thing couldn't happen in the United States. Oh, wait.....

Expropriation was a hot topic of study in international politcal economy in the seventies, when it seemed like the phenomenon was going to be a permanent feature. In the eighties, the diffusion of free-market ideas and the collapse of communism rendered that topic pretty much inert. I suspect we’re going to start seeing a few dissertations on the topic sprouting up soon, however. Ecuador, Bolivia, Venezuela… this is definitely a trend. And then there’s Russia. Here are the first few paragraphs of Arkady Ostrovsky’s “Russian ministry seeks review of oil deals” in the Financial Times:

Russia?s natural resources ministry called on Thursday for a review of the two largest foreign oil projects in the country, even as senior Russian officials sought to assure EU leaders that Russia was a reliable energy partner. The ministry said the legal agreements underpinning oil and gas developments on Sakhalin island, on Russia?s eastern flank, were ineffective and should be reviewed. It said it planned to ask the Duma, Russia?s lower house of parliament, to review production-sharing agreements signed in the 1990s, saying they were damaging Russia?s national interests. Any review of PSAs would threaten the two largest foreign investments in Russia: the Sakhalin-1 project, on which ExxonMobil and its partners have already spent nearly $5bn; and the Sakhalin-2 project, in which Royal Dutch Shell and its partners are investing $20bn. However, two Russian ministers insisted separately that all Moscow?s agreements with foreign energy companies would be honoured, suggesting a rift had opened within the government.

Of course, such a thing couldn’t happen in the United States. Oh, wait…..

Daniel W. Drezner is a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and co-host of the Space the Nation podcast. Twitter: @dandrezner

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