"how about exporting lawyers to Scandinavia?" I would hate to see the damage that would do to their smaller economies.
One point missing from this thread is the fact that private oil corporations can do something that no state run oil ministry can do: extract oil from 26,700ft. below the sea serface. That is just what Chevron and Transocean have done recently in the Gulf of Mexico-code named Tahiti Field. http://www.chevron.com/news/Press/release/?id=2009-05-06 Another example of the disparity between private corporations and staterun minisiry is the Sakhalin oil field in Siberia. Gazprom-Russia's state run ministry -had no clue how to safely develop this depo. It took private corporations like Shell, BP and Total to do the heavy engienering to make this oil field possible. Of course, after all of the heavylifting and extreme engeniering, Russia promptly nationalized the whole project and left the aforementioned private corp's with pennies on the $$ for their hard work. Prediction here: When an explosion occurs at Sakhalin do to poor shoddy maintenance, Russia will timidly ask for help to contain the situation. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=ai8ko1C67paY&refer=home