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World Business Review looks at who controls the bulk of the world's oil and gas reserves.

We often think of Big Oil, and big energy as a whole, as a crowd of huge multi-national companies whose motives are pure commercial self-interest. But the truth is a large majority of the world's fuel reserves, and that includes 90% of its oil, are under the control of national governments.

Should we be worried that governments are so much in control of the world's fossil fuel supplies? How could it change the way we get our energy, and how much we pay for it, in the future?

Among those discussing this issue are Dr Fatih Birol from Oslo, chief economist of the International Energy Agency, representing the energy consumers of 26 governments from the developed world.

Also in Norway, in Stavanger, is Tor Kartevold, special adviser on oil market issues for Norway's state-owned oil company Statoil. From Boston is Mike Lynch, a consultant and former academic, now at Strategic Energy & Economic Consulting.

Listen here (Real)

First broadcast: Saturday, 11 February, 2006 at 0732 GMT