Who owns the world's oil?

I’m not sure about other places, but it seems everyone in the States groans when Shell or Exxon report their profits. As VnutZ pointed out, though, the percentage profit isn’t near that found among others, such as Microsoft or Google. The key is the very small amount of revenue involved in developing software – at least when compared to oil exploration, production and processing.

The point I want to make, though, is even if the big oil companies were making the largest profits in any industry, this doesn’t mean they have any control over the price of a barrel of oil – because they own less than a fourth of the world’s oil. Who owns the rest of it, you ask? Governments. Nigeria. Venezuela. Saudi Arabia.

So, the next time you have a problem with oil prices, leave the big oil alone and set your sites on nationalized oil.