Ali bin Ibrahim Alnaimi, the Saudi Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, said here today that the role of the national oil companies not only affects their business and their economies but also the future role of OPEC and the international energy relations in general. Addressing the OPEC International Seminar in Vienna today, Alnaimi said half of the top 50 oil companies worldwide are fully or majority owned government companies. The 2003 ranking of international oil companies using six operational criteria: oil and gas reserves and production as well as refining capacity and product sales showed that five of the top ten were the national oil companies of Saudi Arabia , Mexico, Venezuela, China and Iran. In a keynote titled "the Role of the National Oil Companies in a Changing World Economic and Energy Relations", the Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia said nine or eight out of ten were national oil companies. In terms of both oil and gas production, five national oil companies were in the top ten. --More 0013 Local Time 2113 GMT
