Publications

An overview of key evolutions in the light-duty vehicle sector and their impact on oil demand

Springer

The light-duty vehicle (LDV) sector is undergoing many changes, including technological advancements (e.g., vehicle electrification, automation), new business models (e.g., ride-hailing), and government regulations and policies (e.g., fuel economy (FE) standards, zero-emission vehicle mandates, infrastructure investments, and incentives to encourage…

Mohammed Albrahim, Ahmed Al Zahrani, Anvita Arora, Rubal Dua, Bassam Fattouh, Adam Sieminski

Aramco and Reliance: Alliance Between Giants

Kaushik Deb

India’s Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) announced at its 42nd annual general meeting that it had signed a letter of intent to sell a 20% stake in RIL’s chemicals, refining and fuel marketing (oil-to-chemicals [O2C]) business to Saudi Aramco in a…

Deb, Kaushik

Assessing Energy Policy Instruments: LNG Imports Into Saudi Arabia

Rami Shabaneh, Maxime Schenckery

Natural gas is already playing a prominent role in diversifying Saudi Arabia’s power mix away from a heavy reliance on oil-based fuels. Between 2010 and 2017, the share of natural gas used in power generation in Saudi Arabia grew from…

Shabaneh, Rami

Schenckery, Maxime

Is the Time Ripe for Private Investment in Interconnections in the MENA Region?

Shahid Hasan

Efforts to integrate power systems and markets in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries and the wider Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region are gaining momentum. With rapidly growing regional electricity demand, the development of an integrated electricity market…

Hasan, Shahid

Solar PV on mosque rooftops: Results from a pilot study in Saudi Arabia

Science Direct

Amro Elshurafa, Abdullah Alsubaie, Ayman Alabduljabbar, Shafi Al-Hsaien

Gasoline Price Reform in Saudi Arabia

Anwar Gasim, Mohammad Aldubyan

Saudi Arabia has been adjusting gasoline prices on a quarterly basis since the start of 2019, with the most recent adjustment occurring on July 14, 2019. These adjustments depend on changes in international oil prices, and are smaller than the…

Gasim, Anwar

Aldubyan, Mohammad

KAPSARC’s Contribution to Evaluating the Impact of Price Controls

Axel Pierru, Walid Matar

The European Journal of Operational Research has just published a paper, “Measuring the effects of price controls using mixed complementarity models” (2019). It detailed a series of innovative modeling approaches developed by KAPSARC researchers over the last six years. The…

Pierru, Axel

Matar, Walid

Finding a Viable Path to Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Keigo Akimoto, Jun Arima, Mustafa Babiker, Mark Caine, David Hobbs, Eija-Riitta Korhola, Adam Sieminski, Nico Stehr, Hiroyuki Tezuka, Masakazu Toyoda, Eric Williams

A viable, least-cost pathway to a low greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions future must lie within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Paris Agreement. The rulebook for the Agreement was in many ways rewritten at the 2018 United…

Keigo Akimoto

Jun Arima

Babiker, Mustafa

Mark Caine

Hobbs, David

Eija-Riitta Korhola

Adam Sieminski

Nico Stehr

Hiroyuki Tezuka

Masakazu Toyoda

Williams, Eric

Techno-Economics of Solar PV on Mosque Rooftops: Results from a Pilot Study in Saudi Arabia

Amro Elshurafa, Abdullah Alsubaie, Ayman Alabduljabbar, Shafi Al-Hsaien

There are an estimated 3.5 million mosques worldwide. The relatively large surface area of most mosque rooftops and their ubiquity in the Muslim world make them excellent candidates for solar photovoltaic (PV) installations. Muslims congregate for prayers at mosques five…

Elshurafa, Amro

Alsubaie, Abdullah

Ayman Alabduljabbar

Al-Hsaien, Shafi

The Political Feasibility of Enhancing Greenhouse Gas Emissions Targets in the European Union’s Mid-Century Strategy

AlJawhara Al Quayid, Saleh Al Muhanna, Paul Mollet

Article 4.19 of the 2015 Paris Agreement calls on signatories to formulate and communicate “long-term low greenhouse gas development strategies,” widely known as the mid-century strategy (MCS). Any enhancement of the European Union’s (EU’s) targets in its MCS depends on…

Al Quayid, AlJawhara

Al Muhanna, Saleh

Mollet, Paul

India’s Oil Imports: Achilles’ Heel or Economic Javelin?

Yagyavalk Bhatt, Paul Mollet, Jitendra Roychoudhury

Presenting India’s 2019 budget on July 5, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman sketched out the Modi government’s vision of becoming a $5 trillion economy by 2024, almost doubling the country’s current gross domestic product (GDP) of $2.73 trillion. To achieve this…

Bhatt, Yagyavalk

Mollet, Paul

Roychoudhury, Jitendra

How does Saudi Arabia’s recent energy performance compare with other G20 countries?

Baltasar Manzano, Rolando Fuentes, Nicholas Howarth

The 68th annual edition of the BP Statistical Review, released recently, is a comprehensive account and analysis of global energy data. Saudi Arabia will be hosting the G20 summit in 2020, and the release of BP’s annual compilation provides a good opportunity…

Manzano, Baltasar

Fuentes, Rolando

Howarth, Nicholas

The Upper Limit of Distributed Solar PV Capacity in Riyadh: A GIS-Assisted Study

MDPI

Rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) systems, commonly referred to as distributed generation (DG) solar systems, are deemed important contenders in future sustainable cities. Because deploying DG systems is associated with technical, financial, policy, and market implications that impact utilities, governments, and…

Amro Elshurafa, Abdelrahman Muhsen

Understanding Potential for Battery Electric Vehicle Adoption Using Large-scale Consumer Profile Data

Science Direct

Ten U.S. states have set mandated sales targets for zero-emission vehicles that could result in significant reductions in fuel consumption and carbon emissions. Battery electric vehicle (BEV) adoption is considered integral to achieving this mandate and thus a better understanding…

Rubal Dua, Kenneth White, Rebecca Lindland

Paris Agreement CCS Policy and Mechanisms

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is one of a limited number of ways to reach the Paris Agreement’s objective of net-zero carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in the second half of this century. The world’s remaining carbon budget of 900 gigatonnes (Gt) will…

Using Insurance to Manage Reliability in the Distributed Electricity Sector: Insights From an Agent-Based Model

Rolando Fuentes, Abhijit Sengupta

Our results suggest that consumers would transfer some of the inherent risks of a blackout to the utility for a price lower than their willingness to pay to achieve their desired level of protection, creating economic value. The purchase of insurance would…

Fuentes, Rolando

AS

Abhijit Sengupta

Impact of China’s Plug-In Electric Vehicle Subsidy Reduction

Tamara Sheldon, Rubal Dua

China, the world’s largest emitter of carbon dioxide, has set ambitious climate goals. These include reducing the carbon intensity of its 2005 gross domestic product (GDP) by 40-45% by 2020 and by 60-65% by 2030 (Xu, Chen, and Chen 2017). A key…

Sheldon, Tamara

Dua, Rubal

An adaptive policy-based framework for China’s Carbon Capture and Storage development

Springer

China’s political leadership has taken an increasingly public and proactive stance on climate change since 2014. This stance includes making a commitment that Chinese carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions will peak around 2030 and enacting measures through the 13th Five-Year Plan…

Xiaoliang Yang, Wolfgang Heidug, Douglas Cooke

How to Empower Saudi Women in the Labor Force?

Cian Mulligan

In the week when Saudi Arabia celebrated its first anniversary of women drivers in the Kingdom and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman accepted the chair of the G20 summit for 2020, G20 countries – including Saudi Arabia – reaffirmed their commitment to…

Mulligan, Cian

State-of-Charge Effects on Standalone Solar-Storage Systems in Hot Climates: A Case Study in Saudi Arabia

MDPI

In this paper, we quantify the economic and environmental implications of operating a standalone photovoltaic-battery system (PVB) while varying the battery’s minimum allowable state of charge (MSOC), the load profile, and simultaneously incorporating ambient temperature effects in hot climates. To…

Amro Elshurafa, Mohammad Aldubyan