A petrostate or oil state is a nation whose economy is heavily dependent on the extraction and export of
oil
An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) & lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturated ...
or
natural gas
Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbo ...
. The presence alone of large oil and gas industries does not define a petrostate; countries like
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...
,
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
, and the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
are
major oil producers but also have
diversified economies
Economic diversity or economic diversification refers to variations in the economic status or the use of a broad range of economic activities in a region or country. Diversification is used as a strategy to encourage positive economic growth and ...
.
Petrostates also have highly concentrated political and economic power, resting in the hands of an
elite, as well as
unaccountable
Accountability, in terms of ethics and governance, is equated with answerability, blameworthiness, liability, and the expectation of account-giving. As in an aspect of governance, it has been central to discussions related to problems in the pub ...
political institutions which are susceptible to
corruption.
Countries considered to be petrostates
While the largest oil-producing states are often petrostates, this is not always true. In 2018, for example, the United States (1st) and Canada (5th) were among the top-five oil producing countries, but are not defined as petrostates due to their diverse economies.
Various countries have been identified as current or former petrostates:
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Economy
Petrostates are typified by weak economies, where products are more frequently imported than domestically produced. Diversification can successfully occur in limited circumstances, such as Mexico becoming part of the
North American Free Trade Agreement, or Dubai leveraging its location to become a hub of commerce and tourism. Most petrostates do not attempt economic diversification, instead seeking economic domination through large, state-owned oil companies.
Governance
Petrostates are often operated by
autocratic
Autocracy is a system of government in which absolute power over a state is concentrated in the hands of one person, whose decisions are subject neither to external legal restraints nor to regularized mechanisms of popular control (except per ...
governments. Petrostate citizens are discouraged from developing autonomy by their dependence on the oil revenue of the government. While a majority of wealthy countries (per capita income more than US $25,000) are democracies, some autocratic petrostates have reached the same level of income due to their massive oil revenues. Petrostates may discourage
democratization because wealthy autocrats can buy off their citizens via cheap gas and jobs working in state industries. These oil-based states run by autocrats are sometimes called petro-dictatorships.
Social impacts
The reliance on oil and natural gas may preclude the development of other industries, known as
Dutch disease
In economics, the Dutch disease is the apparent causal relationship between the increase in the economic development of a specific sector (for example natural resources) and a decline in other sectors (like the manufacturing sector or agricultur ...
. Light industries, including textiles and clothing, are key factors that drive women to participate in the workforce. Petrostates thus often have lower rates of female workers, which can impede women's access to social and political freedoms.
Resource curse
Global energy prices can cause turbulent and unpredictable swings in a petrostate's economy. Undiversified reliance on oil and gas industries can cause political and economic crises when the
price of oil
The price of oil, or the oil price, generally refers to the spot price of a barrel () of benchmark crude oil—a reference price for buyers and sellers of crude oil such as West Texas Intermediate (WTI), Brent Crude, Dubai Crude, OPEC ...
drops. Over-investment in these industries at the expense of other sectors, such as manufacturing and agriculture, can hurt economic growth and competitiveness. Petrostates can suffer from the
resource curse
The resource curse, also known as the paradox of plenty or the poverty paradox, is the phenomenon of countries with an abundance of natural resources (such as fossil fuels and certain minerals) having less economic growth, less democracy, or worse ...
, meaning that their abundance of natural resources can have detrimental impacts on other parts of the economy, as well as negative social and political impacts.
References
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Authoritarianism
Petroleum politics