She’s the first to admit the idea is controversial. Valerie Marcel, an associate fellow at Chatham House, argues that emerging market countries new to exploration and production of oil and gas should look not to international best practice, as they are typically advised, but rather aim “for more appropriate practice, taking account of the national context.”

Marcel heads the “New Petroleum Producers Discussion Group” at Chatham House. The group brings together 25 countries — including Lebanon — to “enhance the capacity of emerging oil and gas producers to establish context-appropriate rules and institutions for good governance of their petroleum sectors and to engage credibly with international partners,” according to its website. Al-Monitor sat with Marcel on the sidelines of a May 26 forum discussing oil and gas in Lebanon to talk good governance and get a bit of her insight on a local debate concerning if and when to establish a national oil company (NOC).

The text of the interview, edited for clarity, follows:

Al-Monitor:  One argument being made in Lebanon in favor of establishing an NOC now (before the first licensing round and well before the country has confirmed whether or not it actually has exploitable offshore oil and/or gas resources) is that the three pillars of any country’s oil and gas industry are a ministry of oil, a sector regulator and an NOC. Do you agree?