Publications

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

The Future of Gas in the Gulf: Continuity and Change

Rami Shabaneh, Bassam Fattouh

This book provides an update the development of natural gas in the Gulf countries nearly ten years after the publication of the OIES Gas Programme book on Natural Gas Markets in the Middle East and North Africa. The book comprises in-depth…

Shabaneh, Rami

Bassam Fattouh

Gas Demand Growth Beyond Power Generation

Kaushik Deb

Highlighting the main trends that have made natural gas the world’s fastest growing fossil fuel, this paper identifies sectors and regions where gas demand is likely to grow in the coming years — especially outside of the power generation sector…

Deb, Kaushik

Oman Electricity Sector: Features, Challenges and Opportunities for Market Integration

Shahid Hasan, Turki Alaqeel, Yagyavalk Bhatt, Abdullah Al-Badi, Mohammed Al-Badi

This discussion paper is part of a KAPSARC research project initiated to develop insights that can facilitate the creation of a well-functioning integrated electricity market comprising the member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). The project identifies and examines…

Hasan, Shahid

Alaqeel, Turki

Bhatt, Yagyavalk

Abdullah Al-Badi

Mohammed Al-Badi

An Economic Analysis of China’s Domestic Crude Oil Supply Policies

Bertrand Rioux, Philipp Galkin, Kang Wu

China’s domestic oil production has lagged the rapid growth in the country’s oil consumption since 2000, leading to a large, and growing, reliance on crude imports to meet demand. Factors including China’s current market structure and regulatory environment impede further…

Rioux, Bertrand

Galkin, Philipp

Wu, Kang

Balancing Energy Security Priorities: A Portfolio Optimization Approach to Oil Imports

Philipp Galkin, Carlo Andrea Bollino, Simona Bigerna

The idea of energy security emerged after the energy crises of the 1970s. It has evolved from the initial paradigm of assuring sufficient energy supplies to include a price affordability perspective and, eventually, many other energy-related issues, such as infrastructure,…

Galkin, Philipp

Bollino, Carlo Andrea

Bigerna, Simona

How Total Factor Productivity Drives Long-Run Energy Consumption in Saudi Arabia

Fakhri Hasanov, Brantley Liddle, Carlo Andrea Bollino, Jeyhun Mikayilov

In this study, we investigate how total factor productivity (TFP), alongside income, price, and population, shapes energy consumption in the long-run in Saudi Arabia, the world’s number one oil exporter. To do so, we first estimate a production function and…

Hasanov, Fakhri

Brantley Liddle

Bollino, Carlo Andrea

Mikayilov, Jeyhun

Energy Governance in China: The Structures and Processes of Government Decision-Making

Dongmei Chen, Paul Mollet, Brian Efird

This paper describes the current governance structure of China’s energy sector. The interplay between central government, the Communist Party, regional governments and key economic actors within the framework of China’s five-year planning processes are complex and constantly evolving. As such,…

Chen, Dongmei

Mollet, Paul

Efird, Brian

Estimating Freight Transport Activity Using Nighttime Lights Satellite Data in China, India and Saudi Arabia

Hector G. Lopez-Ruiz, Nora Nezamuddin, Abdelrahman Muhsen

This paper focuses on the methodology for estimating total freight transport activity (FTA) for three countries  — China, India and Saudi Arabia  — with the objective of building on current state-of-the-art transportation modeling in three key areas: Studying the relationship…

Lopez-Ruiz, Hector G.

Nezamuddin, Nora

Muhsen, Abdelrahman

Iran Sanctions: Implications for the Oil Market

Carlo Andrea Bollino, Brian Efird, Fakhri Hasanov, Emre Hatipoglu

United States (U.S.) Iran energy sanction waivers expired May 2, 2019. The waivers permitted eight economies (China, Greece, India, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Turkey) to temporarily continue buying oil from Iran. Based on KAPSARC modeling of the political…

Bollino, Carlo Andrea

Efird, Brian

Hasanov, Fakhri

Hatipoglu, Emre

Re-evaluating the Environmental Impacts of Tourism: Does EKC Exist?

Springer

The study investigates the long-run impact of tourism development on ecological footprint by employing the time-varying coefficient cointegration approach (TVC), in addition to the conventional cointegration techniques in the case of Azerbaijan for the period of 1996–2014.

Jeyhun Mikayilov, Jeyhun Mammadov, Mayis Azizov, Shahriyar Mukhtarov

The Impacts of Industrialization on Freight Movement in China

Dongmei Chen, Yagyavalk Bhatt

China’s rapid economic growth has enabled the fast development of freight transport across the country. What might the impact of future economic growth be on freight movement in China? To answer this question, this paper establishes the link between key…

Chen, Dongmei

Bhatt, Yagyavalk

Policy Levers for Promoting Fuel-Efficient Mobility

Personal automotive travel is associated with many negative externalities, including air pollution, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and traffic congestion. The current cost of driving for motorists does not necessarily account for the costs associated with these externalities. Policymakers are employing…

Drivers of New Light-Duty Vehicle Fleet Fuel Economy in Saudi Arabia

Rubal Dua, Tamara Sheldon

This paper investigates the drivers of recent improvements in Saudi Arabia’s new light-duty vehicle fleet fuel economy. A vehicle choice model is estimated using aggregate and disaggregate new vehicle purchase data. The estimates are used to simulate counterfactual policy scenarios.…

Dua, Rubal

Sheldon, Tamara

A Mechanism for CCS in the Post-Paris Era

Wolfgang Heidug, Paul Zakkour

The Paris Agreement committed ratifying Parties to hold the increase in the global average temperature to much less than 2°C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the increase to 1.5°C. The Agreement also committed Parties to achieving…

Heidug, Wolfgang

Zakkour, Paul