State Oil Industry's Future Sets off Tussle in Mexico.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: China displaces the U.S. at Ecuador's Manta Base

Despite the oil money that Rio gets from the wells off its coastline, the state has often been in the red.

ECONOMIST: Brazil

In Texas, the birthplace of the shale-gas revolution, there is currently a stand-off between the federal Environmental Protection Agency and the state Railroad Commission, which regulates oil and gas production.

WSJ: Daniel Yergin on the Shale Gas Revolution: Stepping on the Gas

Oil prices spiked in 2006, when an oil spill in a BP-operated Alaskan field briefly threatened to cut off half of the state's production for months.

WSJ: Drilling Rules Hit Alaska Pipeline

Norway is salting away a big chunk of its oil income in a State Petroleum Fund to help pay the pensions of its ageing population when oil and gas production tails off.

ECONOMIST: Remodelling Scandinavia