Petroleum taxation is the universal instrument through which governments seek to determine the crucial balance between the financial interests of the oil companies and the owners of the resource. This book addresses how governments have and continue to approach this problem, the impacts of different policy choices and how these are being adapted to changing business conditions. Carole Nakhle presents the reader with an illuminating and robust analysis of the entire taxation story, from the basic theoretical considerations through to advanced computations applied to various tax regimes.

Nakhle's main argument is that petroleum taxation is a subject of complexity, variety and subject to continued evolution, being surrounded and shaped by multifaceted geological, technical and market factors together with unpredictable political influences. The author challenges the assumption that perfect models of petroleum taxation can be designed and applied to countries and circumstances around the world, arguing that an ideal structure exists only in theory but can be nonetheless a useful benchmark against which to test proposed fiscal systems.