We present a new dataset that tracks changes in legal ownership regimes in the petroleum sector between 1867 and 2008 for a panel of countries. We document that foreign ownership has been taken over by partnerships as the leading ownership regime, while domestic ownership is on the rise again in recent years. We use this dataset to examine whether institutional change in the petroleum sector leads to more oil and gas exploration and discoveries. On average, switching to majority foreign ownership is related to up to a quarter of a standard deviation more discoveries than under majority domestic ownership. Switching to partnership is positively related to drilling activity, but is less likely to be linked to many more discoveries. Petroleum exploration and discoveries may thus be endogenous to industry-specific institutional change.

我们提供了一个新的数据集，用于跟踪 1867 年至 2008 年期间一组国家石油部门合法所有权制度的变化。我们记录到，外资所有权已被合伙企业接管，成为主要的所有权制度，而国内所有权近年来再次上升。我们使用这个数据集来检验石油部门的制度变化是否会导致更多的石油和天然气勘探和发现。平均而言，转向多数外国所有权与多数国内所有权相比，发现的发现最多可达标准差的四分之一。转向合作与钻井活动呈正相关，但不太可能与更多发现相关联。因此，石油勘探和发现可能是行业特定制度变革的内生因素。