Dictionary

petrostate en · NOUN

Etymology

From petro- + state.

Meanings

1. A state whose wealth stems from the sale of oil.
   • COPs have been held in petrostates before. But fossil fuel interests appeared truly unleashed in Baku — potentially emboldened by the imminent arrival of Donald Trump in the White House, a man who has vowed to “drill, baby, drill” and pull the US out of the Paris climate agreement. 2024 November 25, Laura Paddison, “The UN climate summit ended in bitterness and accusations of betrayal. Now fears are growing for its future”, in CNN:
   • The petrostate relies on oil as its fiscal foundation, rather than on the taxes paid by the citizens[…] 2006, Donald S Rothchild, Edmond Joseph Keller, Africa-US Relations: Strategic Encounters:
   • Most delegates arriving at Cop28 will have entered the desert city of Dubai along a 12-lane highway, reeking of petrol fumes: welcome to the petrostate of the United Arab Emirates. 2023 December 1, Damian Carrington, Nina Lakhani, Oliver Milman, “Cop28 diary: expensive coffee, cheesy slogans and petrol fumes”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
   • A couple of years ago, while most Canadians were out shovelling the sidewalk or sipping a coffee at Tim Hortons, the nation quietly became a petrostate. 2009, Andrew Nikiforuk, Tar Sands: Dirty Oil and the Future of a Continent:
   • Under subsequent democratic regimes, as we shall see, some of these features of the petrostate were to change, while others were intensified. 1997, Fernando Coronil, The magical state: nature, money, and modernity in Venezuela:

Forms

Translations (6)

pt petroestado (oil state) · es petroestado (oil state) · ru петрогосуда́рство (oil state) · nl oliestaat (oil state) · ru нефтегосуда́рство (oil state) · it petrostato (oil state)