NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil producing nations that are pushing out international energy companies to hike state control of resources are losing valuable expertise needed to grow their industries, the American Petroleum Institute said on Monday.
Spurred by high energy prices, the governments of Bolivia, Ecuador and Venezuela have taken over some oil and natural gas fields operated by foreign energy companies in recent months.
But the loss of the expertise, money, and technology which international oil companies can bring to projects may mean governments miss development opportunities, API officials told the Reuters Global Energy Summit in New York.
"We found that national companies of any industry and any scope are not usually the best means to produce anything," said John Felmy, Chief Economist for the API, a group representing U.S. oil and natural gas companies.
"You are not going to attract the technology, skills, project management you need to actually do (projects)," he added.
Analysts say the oil and natural gas exporting nations look to increase state control over industries to maximize profits when prices are soaring. U.S. oil futures struck a record over $75 a barrel last month on supply concerns.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, at the fore of this most recent wave of nationalization, says that his government is changing deals which were "robbing" the OPEC nation by giving foreign firms preferential access to reserves.
API President Red Cavaney said that oil companies may become skittish to make more investments in countries that change contracts, however.
"I think you're going to have capital flight and I think that you're going to have opportunities that might have been not be there," Cavaney said.
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