Search

Begin New Search Topic Oil

111. Owning Up: Options for Disclosing the Identities of Beneficial Owners of Extractive Companies

Author:
Aaron Sayne, Erica Westenberg, and Amir Shafaie
Publication Date:
08-2015
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Natural Resource Governance Institute
Abstract:
Global interest in ownership transparency is growing, with the G8 adopting principles on beneficial ownership; a dozen EITI countries participating in a beneficial ownership pilot; and the US, UK and EU taking steps toward making more beneficial ownership information available. The aim of such initiatives is to shed light on secret ownership structures that enable some extractive companies to evade tax payments or hide improper relationships with government officials. While a complex and opaque ownership structure is no sure sign that an extractives company is engaging in financial misconduct, the publication of beneficial ownership information can help to deter improper practices and enable detection. This briefing explores options open to countries for collecting, publishing and using information on the beneficial owners of oil, gas and mining companies. It provides background on how beneficial ownership works in the extractive industries and why it matters. The briefing also offers governments, companies and civil society members a framework for deciding what information to publish, and considers the critical question of what more disclosure could realistically achieve.
Topic:
Industrial Policy, International Cooperation, International Trade and Finance, Oil, and Natural Resources
Political Geography:
Global Focus

112. NRGI Readers: A Primer Series About Resource Governance

Publication Date:
04-2015
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Natural Resource Governance Institute
Abstract:
NRGI has created a series of short, illustrated overviews of key topics in NRGI's portfolio of work. Together they serve as a robust introduction for the lay reader to fundamental issues and concepts in resource governance. Most contain helpful figures and infographics, and each reader has a standard format: key messages, key concepts and case examples, and a final set of practitioner-orientated questions to ask. Each topic is explicitly linked to the relevant precepts of the Natural Resource Charter.
Topic:
Economics, Industrial Policy, Oil, Natural Resources, and Governance
Political Geography:
Global Focus

113. The Outlook for Algeria

Author:
Joffé George
Publication Date:
10-2015
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Istituto Affari Internazionali
Abstract:
Algeria today faces a triple crisis. The collapse in global oil prices during 2014 and 2015 has meant that its economic future is potentially extremely sombre. In political terms, the regime faces a complex and uncertain transition as the Bouteflika era comes to an end. Moreover, Algeria’s security environment is threatening, given the chaos in Libya, the emergence of extremism in Tunisia and the ongoing violence in northern Mali because of the extremist groups located there. This situation is further complicated by the persistence of “residual terrorism,” as the government terms it, inside Algeria itself and the chronic crisis with Morocco over the latter’s annexation of the Western Sahara in 1975. This paper analyses each of these factors in turn before seeking to outline short- to medium-term scenarios for the future.
Topic:
Security, Economics, Islam, Oil, and Terrorism
Political Geography:
North Africa
Publication Identifier:
978-88-98650-62-0
Publication Identifier Type:
DOI

114. Regulation, Conversation, and Impact of Shale Gas and Oil in a Low Price Environment

Author:
David Grossman
Publication Date:
11-2015
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Aspen Institute
Abstract:
The 2015 Modern Shale Gas and Oil Production Forum, “Regulation, Conversation, and Impact of Shale Gas and Oil in a Low Price Environment,” convened about 60 invited energy leaders, including regulators from leading producing states and representatives from industry and the environmental community. The discussions covered a broad range of environmental and community effects related to shale gas and oil production, including water use and availability, surface and groundwater contamination, air emissions, land use impacts, induced seismicity, and local nuisance issues. The Forum also benefited this year from a meeting of state regulators that took place in the days immediately preceding the Forum. The focus of this meeting was to discuss the concept of a regulatory consultation and assessment process to promote continual regulatory improvement – an idea initially discussed during the 2014 Modern Shale Gas and Oil Production Forum.
Topic:
Energy Policy, Environment, Oil, Global Markets, Gas, and Regulation
Political Geography:
Global Markets

115. The New Pricing Reality in Global Oil and Gas Markets

Author:
Dave Grossman, Claire Farley, and Bill White
Publication Date:
11-2015
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Aspen Institute
Abstract:
The 2015 Forum on Global Energy Economy and Security, “The New Pricing Reality in Global Oil and Gas Markets,” was co-chaired by Claire Farley, Member at Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Company, and Bill White, Senior Advisor and Chairman of Lazard Houston and former Mayor of Houston. Topics discussed included the current and future drivers of global supply and demand for petroleum; specific regional changes and challenges; the global LNG market and market penetration for natural gas; environmental challenges that may impact oil and gas development; and the effect of new technology and data changing planning and investment.
Topic:
Economics, Energy Policy, Environment, Oil, and Global Markets
Political Geography:
Global Focus

116. Iran’s Economic Reintegration: Sanctions Relief, Energy, and Economic Growth Under a Nuclear Agreement with Iran

Author:
Elizabeth Rosenberg and Sara Vakhshouri
Publication Date:
06-2015
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for a New American Security
Abstract:
The international community is poised to sign a deal with Iran on its nuclear program, under which Iran would make concessions on its enrichment activities and the United States and others would offer substantial relief from punishing economic sanctions. The removal of the most complex, extensive, and multilateral regime of coercive economic measures promises a windfall to Iran. However, this will be neither immediate nor easy, given the difficulty of reestablishing severed commercial and legal ties between Iran and the global financial system. Removing sanctions will require careful international cooperation and substantial outreach to the private sector.
Topic:
Arms Control and Proliferation, Economics, International Trade and Finance, Oil, Treaties and Agreements, and Sanctions
Political Geography:
Iran and Middle East

117. Brazil and the United States: Renewed Momentum in a Natural Partnership

Author:
Liliana Ayalde
Publication Date:
09-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Ambassador's Review
Abstract:
It is impossible to comprehend Brazil without understanding the dimensions of this continent-sized country, which occupies a land mass larger than that of the lower 48 of the United States. Brazil’s land border, which it shares with ten South American neighbors, is five times larger than the border between the United States and Mexico. Brazil is the fifth largest country in the world in terms of population. (For context, Indonesia is fourth.) It has abundant natural resources of every kind, including the world’s largest reserves of fresh water. It is home to two-thirds of the iconic Amazon, the globe’s largest tropical rainforest. It is the second largest economy in the Western Hemisphere and, depending on one’s calculus, the seventh or eighth largest economy in the world. The State of Sao Paulo alone has an economy larger than that of Argentina. Brazil has more cities with a population of over one million people than the United States. It is the world’s second largest exporter of agricultural goods after the United States. It derives 75 percent of its energy needs from hydro-electric sources—some of the cleanest energy platforms among large nations—and its current production of oil and gas make it among the top ten energy producers in the world. Brazil could become an even larger global producer with the development of its pre-salt oil reserves. With Embraer, Brazil has the world’s third largest aviation company after Boeing and Airbus, and in Gerdau, the top producer of long steel in the Americas. And this is just an illustrative sampling. One needs to keep in mind these basic facts about Brazil to help put surface events, including today’s headlines, in perspective.
Topic:
Agriculture, Economics, Energy Policy, Oil, and Natural Resources
Political Geography:
United States and Brazil

118. From Catching Up to Forging Ahead: China’s Policies for Semiconductors

Publication Date:
01-2015
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
East-West Center
Abstract:
China, the world's leading exporter of electronic products, faces a fundamental dilemma. It is the largest and fastest-growing market for semiconductors, the core component of those electronics products. Yet, at least 80 percent of the semiconductors used in China's electronics products must be imported. As a result, China's trade deficit in semiconductors has more than doubled since 2005 and now exceeds the huge amount it spends on crude oil imports. To correct this unsustainable imbalance, China's new strategy to upgrade its semiconductor industry seeks to move from catching up to forging ahead in semiconductors. The strategy calls for simultaneously strengthening advanced manufacturing and innovation capabilities in China's integrated circuit (IC) design industry and its domestic IC fabrication, primarily through foundry services. Drawing on policy documents and interviews with China-based industry experts, this study takes a close look at the objectives, strategy, and implementation policies of China's new push in semiconductors and examines what this implies for China's prospects in this industry. The study shows that China's new policy resorts to private equity investment rather than subsidy as the tool of industrial policy. The government participates in equity investment and claims it will do so without intervening in management decisions. This policy is expected to reduce the cost of investment funds for a selected group of firms, which is to form a "national team" in the semiconductor industry. China's new policy to upgrade its semiconductor industry through innovation does not represent a radical break with its deeply embedded statist tradition. Within these boundaries, however, the study detects important changes in the direction of a bottom-up, market-led approach to industrial policy. In response to the rising complexity and uncertainty of today's semiconductor industry, the government seems more open to experimentation with new approaches to investment finance and flexible, bottom-up policy implementation, based on multilayered industrial dialogues with private firms. China's policies to forge ahead in semiconductors, thus, provide an interesting example of its current efforts to move from investment-driven catching up to an innovation-driven development model.
Topic:
Economics, International Trade and Finance, Oil, Science and Technology, and Financial Markets
Political Geography:
China

119. Macroeconomic Update: Indian Exports: Loss of Global Competitiveness

Author:
Rajiv Kumar and Geetima Das Krishna
Publication Date:
06-2015
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Centre for Policy Research, India
Abstract:
India’s exports have declined for six consecutive monthssince December 2014 with an average decline of 13.85% yoy. The decline was broad-based. Even exports of Manufactured goods trended lower during this time and failed to compensate for the fall in nominal value of commodity exports, which declined due to a huge erosion of global commodity and oil prices. India’s exports seem to have become more reliant on global commodity prices in recent years. In line with global crude oil prices, India’s monthly petroleum exports that peaked in July’14 at $7 billion shrunk to mere $2.4 billion in May 2015, declining at an average of 52% since the start of the year. Iron ore exports having peaked at $509.5 million in December 2011 moved from $129.5 million in April 2014 to $10 million in May 2015. It is instructive to take a longer term perspective of export performance (Please see Chart I below). Average export growth hasremained almoststagnantsince January 2012 after a sharp bounce back from the collapse in the first and second quarters of 2009, induced by the global financial crisis. Export growth since October 2011 (50 months) is much lower than the robust 20% average clocked during the seven year period of April 2002- March 2009. (marginally lower than the 23% rate of growth assumed for the five year period of 2015-16 to 2020-21 in the Foreign Trade Policy announced in early 2015).
Topic:
International Trade and Finance, Oil, Economic growth, Commodities, Exports, and Macroeconomics
Political Geography:
South Asia, India, and Global Markets

120. A Useful Pause in Arctic Drilling

Author:
Bruce M. Everett
Publication Date:
09-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Fletcher Security Review
Institution:
The Fletcher School, Tufts University
Abstract:
Until last year, drilling for oil in the Arctic was the subject of considerable discussion focused not only on the potential impacts of Arctic resources on the oil market, but also on the environmental and geopolitical implications of opening this area to development. Prospects for Arctic drilling dimmed considerably in 2015 when Shell decided to abandon its ambitious drilling efforts in the Burger Field in the Chukchi Sea, writing off several billion dollars in the process. The recent collapse in oil prices has probably put a stop to Arctic drilling for the time being, and this pause may prove useful in resolving some of the outstanding issues.
Topic:
Environment, Oil, Natural Resources, Geopolitics, and Maritime
Political Geography:
Russia, Canada, Norway, Denmark, Greenland, Arctic, United States of America, and Oceans