CHICAGO (PR News Wire) ? Risk complexity, nationalism and arbitrary regulation have emerged as significant threats to multinational corporations? balance sheets, according to the latest global analysis by Aon political risk experts.

Each year, Aon?s political risk and trade credit experts analyse the political and economic risk climate in more than 200 countries. Their findings are illustrated in the annual update of Aon?s Political and Economic Risk Map, now in its 14th year.

The latest edition, published yesterday, shows that of the 214 countries surveyed in 2006, 15 countries pose less of a risk in 2007 compared to 2006, contributing to a decrease in the overall level of global political risk for the first time in three years.

Despite this, 2006 produced its fair share of political risk events. ?The world?s multinational energy companies are feeling the effects of nationalism, ?said Bryan Squibb, Aon US Trade Credit national managing director. ?Oil-producing countries are seizing local resources that were once owned by or shared with international oil companies.

?This could be a blanket country action, such as Bolivia?s outright nationalisation of the oil and gas industry in May 2006, or more targeted action, possibly through arbitrarily imposed regulations and interference against individual projects, such as Russia?s recent moves against Sakhalin II or BP?s TNK-BP.

?Such events, along with other geopolitical problems in other regions of the world, will likely keep oil prices high for at least the next year,? Squibb said.

For example, Squibb said, in January 2006, Russia turned off the gas supply to Ukraine unless it agreed to increase the prices paid for Russian gas. Ukraine will need to agree to pay even higher prices during 2007 to avoid that happening again; Belarus has just agreed to pay Russia higher prices to ward off the same threat.

Greater reliance on overseas sourced goods, with increasingly tighter ?just-in-time? production demands, means that companies? global supply chains are under threat from political and non-political trade disruption risks such as embargoes or even bird flu.

?The magnitude and complexity of risk is increasing for companies around the world,? said Squibb. ?In addition the same companies are facing increased scrutiny both internally and externally. There are severe corporate governance and reputational risks.

?Companies now need to carry out far more detailed and diverse analysis of the risks they face in foreign territories and these issues need to be constantly monitored as well, whether they are macro or micro in nature.?

?The types of risks shown on Aon?s map have serious consequences for business, which accounts for the map?s continued popularity year after year,? according to Oxford Analytica Senior Consultant Sam Wilkin. ?This is doubly true in the era of Sarbanes-Oxley, and now that companies are increasingly held to account for labour practices at even distant points of their global supply chains.?

International consulting firm Oxford Analytica collaborates with Aon Trade Credit on the annual political risk analysis for the map.