This problem will not go away as long as prices are high. Across the world, resource nationalism is coming into prominence, as countries nationalise or attempt to control the resources in their sphere of influence. The vast majority of oil reserves remaining are nationally owned, a large proportion of them in countries that do not permit foreign investment. State-owned petroleum companies, seen as extensions of their countries’ foreign policies in some cases, and as cash cows in others, are taking over the industry. From a global point of view, this might well be disastrous; in particular, they massively under-invest in new exploration and pipeline security, thus mortgaging the future of the industry for the short-term benefit of their political masters. In Venezuela, oil funds Chavez’s quixotic foreign policy; in Russia, it funds Putin’s authoritarianism at home. In neither case is the industry open to foreigners; in both cases, domestic investment is insufficient to keep the industry going. No wonder Putin wants to show that Europe and South Asia’s energy security depends on him. As OVL buys Imperial, as ONGC-Mittal negotiates with PetroKazakh, let our cheers be tempered with this knowledge.