Since oil was found in Arabia in 1932, questions have been asked about the region’s capacity to manage the greatest mineral discovery in human history.

Initially, there was little doubt Arabia had to depend upon international oil companies (IOCs). They owned and managed the region’s oil for more than 40 years. Gulf governments took a share of the income the IOCs earned, but let them to get on with task of finding, producing, processing and selling oil and gas.

This changed in 1972 when Kuwait’s government acquired a 25 per cent stake in Kuwait Oil Company (KOC). In November 1988, the Saudi Arabian government acquired the final foreign-owned stake in Saudi Aramco. In the intervening period, the oil industries of Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and the UAE were brought into full state ownership. Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) is the only major GCC national oil company (NOC) where an IOC (the UK/Dutch Shell Group) is still a shareholder.

Iran’s attempt to take control of its oil industry triggered a coup. The outside world was largely powerless to stop Iraq doing the same in 1972. In what is now the GCC, oil industry nationalisation was achieved by negotiation, although some IOCs nursed grievances about the way they were treated.

GCC NOCs knew their limitations and worked with IOCs in various ways. Amid claims they were not up to the task following the 1986 oil crash, there was talk of the IOCs being brought back. After the 1991 war for Kuwait, it appeared they were poised to recover upstream ownership in some GCC jurisdictions.

The wheel turned again following the 2003 war for Iraq, when oil prices rose by almost 300 per cent in nine years. The huge boom in GCC government income overshadowed the deficiencies of Gulf NOCs.

The slump in oil prices since 2014 has revived old doubts, but this time it is different.

The big questions are coming from within GCC countries rather than from IOCs and outsiders. And they are not about whether Arabia’s NOCs have a future.

Instead, GCC governments are pressing their NOCs to play a more effective role in GCC economies.

In the past three years, there have been leadership changes in the NOCs of Abu Dhabi, Kuwait, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. In aggregate, they produce almost 17 million barrels a day.

All GCC NOCs are focusing on how they can add value across the domestic energy supply chain, including through energy efficiency and investing in renewables.

And new ideas are being developed about how local investors can be granted a direct ownership stake in GCC NOCs and their subsidiaries.

The slump in oil prices is the key challenge facing the GCC, but how the region’s NOCs are changing is what matters most.