Since the early 1870s, when John D. Rockefeller began assembling Standard Oil of New Jersey, the large, usually American-owned and -managed, oil companies have been the most famous and con- troversial business enterprises in the United States as well as throughout most of the world.’ Even...

National oil companies emerged during the 1970s as an important force within both oil-exporting and oil-importing countries. By 1980 they were producing and marketing well over half the crude oil available for sale on world markets. These oil companies prospered within oil-exporting countries as...