International oil has been described as the lifeblood of industrial society. A National Security Council paper in 1953 noted that American Based multinational oil companies were instruments of U.S. foreign policy. The underlying assumption of the paper (and U.S. policy in 1954) was the interests of the companies and the U.S. government were parallel, if not identical. Is this assumption still valid? If not, how has the role of the companies changed over time? What were the major factors that contributed to the changes? Is it likely that international oil will always be primarily governed by geopolitical rather than economic factors and therefore that the role of governments will become increasingly dominant in the governance of international oil?