national oil company

{{Short description|Type of petroleum company}}

A national oil company (NOC) is a petroleum company that is fully or partly owned by the government of a sovereign nation.{{Cite web |title=Opportunity NOCs: How investors can jumpstart energy transitions in national oil companies |url=https://www.2035initiative.com/opportunity-nocs |access-date=2024-02-10 |website=The 2035 Initiative at UC Santa Barbara |language=en-US}}{{Rp|page=3}} NOCs produce about half the world’s oil and gas.{{Cite web|last=Cahill |first=Ben |last2=Swanson |first2=Kjersti |date=2023-12-13 |title=National Oil Companies, Climate Commitments, and Methane |url=https://www.csis.org/analysis/national-oil-companies-climate-commitments-and-methane |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=Facing the Future: What National Oil Companies Say About the Energy Transition |url=http://resourcegovernance.org/publications/facing-future-what-national-oil-companies-say-about-energy-transition |access-date=2024-02-10 |website=Natural Resource Governance Institute |language=en}}

Due to their increasing dominance over global reserves, the importance of NOCs has risen dramatically in recent decades relative to International Oil Companies (IOCs), such as BP, ExxonMobil or Shell plc. NOCs are also increasingly investing outside their national borders.{{citation needed|date=December 2023}}