Texas tops a list of 97 jurisdictions ranked by oil and gas executives for investment allure in an annual survey by the conservative Fraser Institute of Canada.
Venezuela ranked last in the survey, which had 333 respondents.
The survey ranks jurisdictions—states, provinces, geographical regions such as offshore areas, and countries—according to the extent of their oil and gas investment barriers.
It evaluates jurisdictions by assigning scores on each of 16 questions about factors known to affect investment decisions. The scores yield a "policy perception index," which the institute applies to jurisdictions grouped by proved oil and gas reserves.
Of the 15 jurisdictions with the largest petroleum reserves, the five ranking highest in investment attractiveness, in descending order, are Texas, the United Arab Emirates, Alberta, Kuwait, and Egypt.
The five least attractive jurisdictions in the large-reserves category, starting at bottom, are Venezuela, Libya, Iraq, Indonesia, and Nigeria. They account for 41% of the oil and gas reserves of all jurisdictions covered by the survey.
The 97 jurisdictions evaluated account for 52% of global oil and gas reserves and 66% of production.
In the group of 39 jurisdictions with medium-range reserves, the 10 most attractive for investment are Oklahoma, North Dakota, Newfoundland & Labrador, West Virginia, Norway-Other, Wyoming, Norway-North Sea, the UK North Sea Offshore, Arkansas, and the Netherlands.
Among 39 jurisdictions with relative small reserves, the top 10 are Kansas, Saskatchewan, South Australia, Manitoba, New Zealand, Mississippi, Montana, Namibia, the UK-Other, and Alabama.
Uncorrected for reserves size, the top 10 jurisdictions for investment allure are Texas, Oklahoma, North Dakota, Newfoundland & Labrador, West Virginia, Kansas, Saskatchewan, Norway-Offshore (except North Sea), Wyoming, and South Australia.
Without correction for reserves, the bottom 10 jurisdictions are Venezuela, Bolivia, Libya, Iraq, Ecuador, Indonesia, California, Cambodia, France, and Yemen.
