text: The Great Game at sea is too complex to be examined in detail here. Suffice it to say that if in terms of transportation, the true identity of the players takes forever to sort out (the nationalities of the owner, the crew, the flag, the cargo), there is a clear trend in the nationalization of oil companies when it comes to production: "The percentage of the world's oil reserves held by publicly traded international oil companies (IOCs) has declined, while the percentage held by state-owned national oil companies (NOCs) has increased. Currently, 72 percent of the world's proven oil reserves are held by NOC's ."27