The 2012 Fraser Institute Global Petroleum Survey presents the results of the Fraser Institutes 6th annual survey of petroleum industry executives and managers regarding barriers to investment in upstream oil and gas exploration and production in various jurisdictions around the globe. The survey responses have been tallied to rank provinces, states, and countries according to the extent of the investment barriers. Those barriers, as identified by the survey respondents, include high tax rates, costly regulatory schemes, uncertainty over environmental regulations and the interpretation and administration of regulations governing the petroleum industry, and security threats. A total of 623 respondents participated in the survey this year, providing sufficient data to evaluate 147 jurisdictions. By way of comparison, 135 jurisdictions were evaluated in the 2011 survey, 133 in 2010, and 143 in 2009. The jurisdictions were assigned scores for each of 18 factors that affect investment decisions. The scores are based on the proportion of negative responses a jurisdiction received. The greater the proportion of negative responses for a jurisdiction, the greater were its perceived investment barriers and, therefore, the lower its ranking.
