After 40 years of oil investments, the UK is now a mature oil province. During these 40 years or so, the UK Government has changed the type of governance it uses to manage its petroleum resources. This paper introduces the theoretical background to two models of mineral resource governance: the so-called proprietorial and nonproprietorial regimes. It investigates the adoption of these two models by the UK Government and their effect on the overall tax take from the UK's petroleum resources. The analysis tracks the changes in the UK petroleum taxation system since establishment up until 2010. It assesses how these tax changes have affected the overall petroleum marginal tax rate. The study concludes that the UK Government adopted a proprietorial type of mineral governance during the period 1975-1982, before changing to a non-proprietorial regime in the period 1983-2000. Since 2000 it has begun to move back towards a proprietorial style of governance. This change is still in its early stages, however; the evidence shows that although there has been an increase in fiscal revenues, this increase has been small
