Publications

Crude Oil Markets in 2015: The Battle for Market Share

Since the OPEC meeting on November 27, 2014, world attention has focused on the U.S. shale oil producers, their financiers and how quickly they will throttle back their production due to low oil prices. U.S. producers are now considered by…

The Challenges of Developing Eastern Africa’s Natural Resources

The discovery of significant oil and gas reserves in Eastern Africa provides a major opportunity for boosting economic development in the region. In developing these reserves, Kenya, Mozambique, Tanzania and Uganda have the chance to rapidly transform their economies and…

Economic modelling of energy services: Rectifying misspecified energy demand functions

Energy Economics

Although it is well known that energy demand is derived, since energy is required not for its own sake but for the energy services it produces – such as heating, lighting, and motive power – energy demand models, both theoretical…

Lester C. Hunt

Efficient Industrial Energy Use: The First Step in Transitioning Saudi Arabia’s Energy Mix

Walid Matar, Axel Pierru, Frederic Murphy, David Wogan, Bertrand Rioux

External observers worry about whether Saudi domestic consumption of oil will crowd out exports. This is based on simple extrapolations which suggest that in a little more than 20 years Saudi Arabia may become a net importer of hydrocarbon fuels.…

Matar, Walid

Pierru, Axel

Murphy, Frederic

Wogan, David

Rioux, Bertrand

Determinants of energy productivity: A comparison of 39 countries

Quantifying the determinants of a country’s energy productivity trends answers the fundamental question of whether its economy is becoming more energy productive because of technological and efficiency gains, or whether it is due to structural economic shifts. This paper uses…

An Introduction to the KAPSARC Toolkit for Behavioral Analysis (KTAB)

Brian Efird, Imtenan Al-Mubarak, Lama Yaseen

The KAPSARC Toolkit for Behavioral Analysis (KTAB) is freely available, state-of-the-art software that has been designed to enable the rigorous and systematic analysis of collective decision-making processes (CDMPs). KTAB is being designed with three types of users in mind. The…

Efird, Brian

Al-Mubarak, Imtenan

Yaseen, Lama

Models for the economies and energy systems of GCC countries

Members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) play a key role in the global energy system. Collectively, in 2014 the six countries supplied the global market with over 28 million barrels of oil equivalent per day of oil and natural…

Global shift: The energy productivity transformation

While their consequences are usually obvious, global shifts are not always apparent until after they have occurred. Most shifts have their roots in local political, technological or economic forces and may interact in some way with the energy system. Globalization…

Implications of Local Content Policies in Developing East Africa’s Natural Resources

Developing local content policies requires first a definition of what constitutes ‘local’ and ‘content’. The politically workable answers are typically different in Eastern Africa than other parts of the world – local context is important. There is no single template…

Lowering Saudi Arabia’s fuel consumption and energy system costs without increasing end consumer prices

Energy Economics

Using a multi-sector equilibrium model of the Saudi energy system that handles administered prices in a mixed-complementarity formulation, we present results from a set of policy scenarios that lower oil consumption in the country. Some of these scenarios are the…

Walid Matar, Frederic Murphy, Axel Pierru, Bertrand Rioux

Devising and Optimizing Development Strategies for South Fuwaris Field Using Integrated Reservoir Simulation Models

Majed A. Al Suwailem

The South Fuwaris Field is located in the Partitioned Zone (PZ) between Saudi Arabia and Kuwait and is operated jointly by Saudi Arabian Chevron (SAC) and Kuwait Gulf Oil Company (KGOC). South Fuwaris produces light crude (240 API) from two…

Al Suwailem, Majed A.

A global degree days database for energy-related applications

Alessandro Lanza

Weather can have a profound effect on energy consumption, especially extremes of hot and cold temperatures. These variations in particular drive residential and commercial energy demand because space heating and cooling is such an important component. Traditional approaches are customized…

Lanza, Alessandro

Modeling residential electricity consumption and efficiency within an economic framework

Walid Matar

Many countries have promoted energy efficiency and conservation in the residential sector due to its significant contribution to total demand. This paper discusses some of the wider implications of more efficient households on the overall energy system. Various efficiency options,…

Matar, Walid

Embodied energy in trade: What role does specialization play

Anwar Gasim

In global discussions aimed at limiting greenhouse gas emissions, the national targets set by governments are tied to the energy used or emissions generated within national borders. However, international trade can confuse the accounting. Moving a factory across the border…

Gasim, Anwar

How coal fueled global growth and slowed energy productivity gains in the early 21st century

Jorge Blazquez

It is common for decision makers and media to conflate the oil price with the price of energy. High crude oil prices are taken as signals of energy scarcity. By contrast, and perhaps misleadingly, low crude oil prices are perceived…

Blazquez, Jorge

Coal: Modeling a complex fuel source

Coal represented 30% of worldwide primary energy consumption in 2013 and would become the most consumed fuel through 2040, under the International Energy Agency (IEA) Current Policies Scenario. However, even in countries with policies designed to curb its supply and…

Energy transitions policy: What matters most

KAPSARC’s research into energy transitions asks why transitions take longer and cost more than policymakers anticipate. Our focus is on the dynamics of the supply chains supporting new fuels and technologies as they penetrate sectors previously occupied by fossil fuels.

Energy productivity: From policy goal to reality

Energy productivity, at the national level, has emerged as a valuable indicator for a number of reasons. It accommodates economic growth, linking energy use to gross domestic product. It is more than conceptually tied to energy efficiency; seen by policymakers…

Crude and Refined Oil Products Markets: Transient Shocks or Secular Change?

The map of world oil flows is changing. It is not only the flows of crude oil that have been affected by surging US light tight oil production, but product flows are also undergoing significant change. Whether these trends will…

China’s Sustainable Fuel Strategies

KAPSARC’s China Research Project is investigating the policy-economic nexus that underpins the growth and evolution of China’s energy economy. This workshop investigated one of the major emerging trends of China’s energy transformation: the development of sustainable fuel use.