ROME (Bloomberg) — International oil companies must improve their technological expertise to survive a trend of increasing nationalism among nations with energy resources, Eni SpA chief executive officer Paolo Scaroni said.

"The balance of power between international energy companies and producing nations is changing, and not in our favour," Scaroni said today in a Bloomberg Television interview at the International Energy Forum in Rome. " The game is about technology. We need to be needed."

Oil-producing countries are seeking a higher share of profit from crude as prices for the commodity have doubled in three years, touching a record $116.97 a barrel last week. Nigeria and Libya are renegotiating contracts, while Eni and its partners had to cede a bigger stake in Kazakhstan's Kashagan field to that country's government last year.

The share of global crude reserves held by international oil companies has dropped to six percent from 75 percent in the 1970s, Scaroni said. Governments in some producing nations are taking close to 90 percent of the profit from projects, he said. Even with oil prices near records, "companies' profitability is decreasing, in many cases below their cost of capital," he said.

Libya is among nations increasing their share of oil revenue. The country is getting 88 percent of profit from crude projects once companies developing its deposits have paid off their costs, Shokri Ghanem, chairman of Libya's National Oil Corp., said in a Bloomberg Television interview in Rome.

"The days of 50-50 oil are over," Ghanem said, referring to contracts under which companies and states split oil profit equally. Libya renegotiated its contract with Eni last year and aims to agree on new terms with Total SA, Repsol YPF SA and Wintershall AG, a unit of BASF SE, "soon," he said. The terms will be valid as of January 1 this year, he said.

The future viability of international oil companies such as Eni, Exxon Mobil Corp. and Royal Dutch Shell Plc depends on their ability to develop complex fields in deep waters, recover oil from ageing fields and build other "challenging projects" that state-run national companies can't do alone, Scaroni said.

"They need to profoundly rethink their business model in order to survive and prosper in the new oil and gas landscape," Scaroni said in his address to the forum, attended by ministers and executives from Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Iran and other members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

"A long-term vision is necessary, but it must be effectively 'sold' to the financial community," which seeks immediate returns, said Scaroni, whose company is Italy's largest oil company.

Mohamed Meziane, CEO of Algeria's state-run energy company Sonatrach, echoed Scaroni's call for investment in innovative exploration methods. The means for finding and bringing oil to market must overcome rising project costs and shortages of skilled labour in the industry, he said.