Factors of Investment Attractiveness of Petroleum Sector

The paper analyzes the concept of investment attractiveness and theoretical aspects associated with this concept in the oil industry in the world. The world oil market has been changing significantly. New challenges arise in front of the industry related to the development of unconventional deposits, the fall in oil prices and the development of technologies. Technologies’ improvement allows to produce unconventional oil and to reduce unit costs for production. In order to estimate the investment attractiveness, the author identifies a group of factors, both macroeconomic and industry specific. Based on the factors and panel data for 16 years for 30 countries a regression is estimated. As statistics on investments, data on capital expenditures for exploration and production provided by Rystad Energy UCube is taken. Based on the results obtained, the most significant indicators are identified that affect the attractiveness of the petroleum industry from the perspective of investors. Recommendations are made for the countries involving in the assessment.