Comparative analysis of upstream petroleum fiscal systems of Pakistan, Thailand and other countries with medium ranked oil reserves

Abstract

Governments and Investors are both interested in the petroleum fiscal systems operating in various countries. Governments aim to attract investors, whereas investors are continually searching for markets which provide the rewards commensurate with the risk they will take. Using fiscal tools, governments can make their upstream petroleum regimes more attractive to investors, by providing greater rewards. Therefore, fiscal tools are important for the management and best exploitation of national oil resources. Although many factors can influence attractiveness of a particular upstream petroleum regime, such as the individual geological attractiveness of a particular prospect, costs of exploration and production or the risk profile of a country or concession, yet, by holding all such factors constant, a model has been built that allows the comparison of various countries in terms of fiscal systems only. The research undertaken compares the current upstream petroleum fiscal systems of countries with closely similar oil reserves to those of Pakistan. Turkey, Cameroon, Congo, and Thailand are the randomly selected countries; however any country with similarly ranked oil reserves could have been selected for comparison. Take Statistics have been used to determine the global competitiveness of upstream petroleum fiscal systems of the five countries.