Publications

Assessment of the Political Feasibility of Developing a GCC Power Market

Paul Mollet, Imtenan Al-Mubarak, Brian Efird, Saleh Al Muhanna, Omar Al-Ubayli

Countries in the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf, commonly known as the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), established a regional power grid to support member countries’ high voltage networks in 2001 but, to date, the system has remained underutilized.…

Mollet, Paul

Al-Mubarak, Imtenan

Efird, Brian

Al Muhanna, Saleh

Al-Ubayli, Omar

Saudi Arabia’s Passenger and Freight Railway Network

Abeer AlGhamdi

We have launched a new series of Data Insights which aim to share topical insights and data on a range of interesting themes. The first insight of the series is focused on Saudi Arabia’s passenger and freight railway network.

AlGhamdi, Abeer

An Estimation of the Drivers Behind OPEC’s Quota Decisions

Philipp Galkin, Tarek Atalla, Zhongyuan Ren

This paper identifies key determinants that appear to shape OPEC’s quota strategy and implementation. Using econometric estimations, it examines the factors that seem to most influence members’ adherence to their production commitments in the short term and what drives the…

Galkin, Philipp

Atalla, Tarek

ZR

Ren, Zhongyuan

Policy Lessons From China’s CCS Experience

Xiaoliang Yang, Wolfgang Heidug

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

Yang, Xiaoliang

Heidug, Wolfgang

KAPSARC Quarterly: Issue 7

Energy productivity analysis framework for buildings: a case study of GCC region

IDEAS

A new analysis framework is developed and applied to assess the benefits of building energy efficiency policies and programs. One of the main advantages of the new energy productivity analysis is that it accounts for both economic and energy performances…

Moncef Krarti, Kankana Dubey, Nicholas Howarth

Fostering Joint Leadership on Energy Productivity Transitions in Saudi Arabia and China

This workshop explored specific opportunities where the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and China can benefit from cooperation around efforts to improve industrial energy productivity. This is especially timely as both countries move into a closer phase of engagement under China’s…

Electricity Market Integration in the GCC and MENA: Imperatives and Challenges

Rising electricity demand and growing fiscal constraints have encouraged governments in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and Middle East and North Africa (MENA) regions to consider more cooperative approaches to delivering reliable and affordable electricity services. The development of an…

The Costs and Gains of Coordinating Electricity Generation in the Gulf Cooperation Council Utilizing the Interconnector

David Wogan, Frederic Murphy, Axel Pierru

Countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) have installed a network of high-voltage transmission lines, known as the GCC Interconnector, which links the member states of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The Interconnector…

Wogan, David

Murphy, Frederic

Pierru, Axel

Potential Effects of Trade Liberalization on China’s Imports of Plastics From the GCC

Philipp Galkin, Carlo Andrea Bollino, Rami Shabaneh

Petrochemical products, particularly plastics, contribute to a significant share of expanding and increasingly diverse trade flows between the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries and China. The petrochemical sector could benefit from a preferential bilateral trade regime between China and the…

Galkin, Philipp

Bollino, Carlo Andrea

Shabaneh, Rami

OPEC’s Impact on Oil Price Volatility: The Role of Spare Capacity

Energy Journal

OPEC claims to hold and use spare production capacity to stabilize the crude oil market. We study the impact of that buffer on the volatility of oil prices. After estimating the stochastic process that generates shocks to demand and supply,…

Axel Pierru, Tamim Zamrik

Unintended consequences of China’s coal capacity cut policy

Energy Policy

In early 2016, China introduced additional capacity cut policies to rebalance supply in the coal market to match demand that had been reduced by slow economic growth and strict environmental regulation. Ensuing disruptions to the coal market caused these policies…

Bertrand Rioux, Philipp Galkin

The impact of financial development on energy consumption: Evidence from an oil-rich economy

Energies

This paper examines the relationship between energy consumption, financial development, and economic growth in an oil-rich economy—Azerbaijan—employing cointegration techniques to the data ranging from 1992 to 2015. The results confirm the existence of a long-run relationship among the variables. Also,…

Jeyhun Mikayilov

Benefits of energy efficiency programs for residential buildings in Bahrain

Journal of Building Engineering

This paper outlines the approach and the cost-effectiveness potential for designing and retrofitting residential buildings to be energy-efficient in Bahrain. The analysis is focused on residential buildings since these buildings consume over 48% of the total electricity used in Bahrain.…

Moncef Krarti, Kankana Dubey

The impact of international trade on CO2 emissions in oil exporting countries: Territory vs consumption emissions accounting

Energy Economics

While international trade and Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions have been well-studied, a panel of only oil-exporting developing economies has not been considered. This paper addresses that gap by investigating the role of the trade in CO2 emissions using a panel…

Fakhri Hasanov, Jeyhun Mikayilov

The responsiveness of fuel demand to gasoline price change in passenger transport: a case study of Saudi Arabia

Energy Efficiency

Empirical estimates of fuel demand changes to price variation are based on historical consumption and prices, and can be applied as a single point estimate to a wide range of price movements. However, if fuel prices are set outside the…

Ibrahim M. Algunaibet, Walid Matar

Gasoline savings from clean vehicle adoption

Energy Policy

Conventional counterfactuals used in literature may underestimate fuel savings from clean vehicle adoption, thus overestimating the costs of securing associated environmental benefits. Using a large-scale nationally representative sample of U.S. new car buyers, we propose a choice model-based counterfactual approach…

Tamara Sheldon, Rubal Dua

Households’ response to changes in electricity pricing schemes: Bridging microeconomic and engineering principles

Energy Economics

This paper presents a computational take on households’ response to price changes. Many studies use assumptions (i.e., price elasticities) that were estimated using historical information; however, if a price change has not been experienced in the past, the response may…

Walid Matar

Estimating the learning curve of solar PV balance–of–system for over 20 countries: Implications and policy recommendations

Journal of Cleaner Production

Solar photovoltaic systems installed on homes and commercial building rooftops are deemed central for a low-carbon future. As capital costs of photovoltaics continue to fall, its role towards making buildings more sustainable and environmentally-friendly will continue to grow. Capital costs…

Amro Elshurafa, Shahad Albardi, Simona Bigerna, Carlo Andrea Bollino

The impact of economic growth on CO2 emissions in Azerbaijan

Journal of Cleaner Production

This paper investigates the relationship between the economic growth and CO2 emissions in Azerbaijan. A cointegration analysis is conducted over the period 1992–2013. For getting more robust results, Johansen, ARDLBT, DOLS, FMOLS and CCR methods are employed to explore cointegration…

Jeyhun Mikayilov, Marzio Galeotti, Fakhri Hasanov