With Aramco, they generally just have to dig a hole in the ground with a shovel and oil comes gushing out. But it is true that the House of Saud has been pretty good at taking care of the goose that lays the golden eggs. Let’s if that stays the case after MBS overturns the old system.

Equinor is more the exception that proves the rule when it comes to national oil companies. They’re even competitive in producing resources outside of Norway!

With both Pemex and PSVSA, you see production collapsing due to a combination of cronyism, corruption, lack of investment, generally too many people with their hands in the pot and lack of foreign competition to keep things honest. PDVSA is even worse off because of nationalizations and all the other problems with the Venezuelan economy.