Publications

Saudi Arabia’s Clean Hydrogen Ambitions: Opportunities and Challenges

Jan Frederik Braun, Rami Shabaneh

Saudi Arabia is a prime example of a country with an immense potential for clean hydrogen, i.e., hydrogen derived from a production process in which carbon emissions into the atmosphere are avoided, mitigated, or captured and stored.  Fully leveraging clean hydrogen to…

Braun, Jan Frederik

Shabaneh, Rami

What Happened to Oil Product Demand in Saudi Arabia During the First Two Quarters of 2020?

Anwar Gasim

In this commentary, we examine the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the various lockdown measures on domestic oil product demand in Saudi Arabia during the first and second quarters of 2020. We explore the pandemic’s effects on six key…

Gasim, Anwar

Charting Saudi Energy Flows

Andrew Stanley

KAPSARC has developed an energy flow chart for Saudi Arabia. The graphic provides a comprehensive view of the Kingdom’s energy profile, breaking down energy supply by source, sector, and electric power.      

Andrew Stanley

Saudi Arabia Energy Report

Abeer AlGhamdi

Saudi Arabia is one of the world’s leading oil producers and exporters. It has the second-largest proven crude oil reserves after Venezuela. Saudi Arabia’s oil reserves have made it one of the most significant players in the global oil market.…

AlGhamdi, Abeer

The Path Toward a Hydrogen Economy: How Industry Can Broaden the Use of Hydrogen

In the past couple of years, it became evident that hydrogen would need to play a pivotal role in a carbon-free energy system. It would help decarbonize hard-to-abate sectors and act as an energy carrier to manage large variability in…

Energy Security and Portfolio Diversification: The Exporter’s Perspective

Philipp Galkin, Carlo Andrea Bollino

Despite the increasing attention paid to energy security and the continuously broadening scope of the field, the perspective of energy importing countries (i.e., supply security) has overshadowed that of exporters, who seek to ensure demand security. As official statements and…

Galkin, Philipp

Bollino, Carlo Andrea

Saudi Arabian Cement Companies: Upgrading Through Leveraging Overcapacity

Jitendra Roychoudhury

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s annual cement production capacity of 72.4 million tonnes is the highest of any Gulf country. From 2001-2005, Saudi cement production grew at a compound annual growth rate of almost 8%. However, its annual production in…

Roychoudhury, Jitendra

Energy Exchanges on GCCIA Interconnector

Turki Alaqeel, Shahid Hasan

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) interconnection grid has linked the national grids of the six GCC countries since 2011. It is run by the GCC Interconnection Authority (GCCIA). It has been primarily designed to provide GCC member countries with alternative…

Alaqeel, Turki

Hasan, Shahid

Implementing Alternative Pricing Policies in Economic Equilibrium Models Using the Extended Mathematical Programming Framework

Bertrand Rioux, Abdullah AlJarboua, Frederic Murphy, Axel Pierru

Standard economic optimization models represent markets in perfect competition. They are commonly used, though they may not accurately represent real-world policies and regulations. Equilibrium models built using a mixed complementarity problem (MCP) approach are capable of simulating more flexible pricing…

Rioux, Bertrand

AlJarboua, Abdullah

Murphy, Frederic

Pierru, Axel

Policy and Economic Frameworks to Deepen Sino-Saudi Cooperation

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has expanded from 65 original member states during its official launch in 2015 to 131 as of April 2019. The countries of the Middle East and North Africa have generally welcomed the initiative and…

China’s Energy Investment Through the Lens of the Belt and Road Initiative

Philipp Galkin, Dongmei Chen, Junyuang Ke

The Chinese government launched the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in 2013 as a vision to promote growth and cooperation among the economies of Asia and Europe. Over the five years since its inception, the BRI has expanded in both…

Galkin, Philipp

Chen, Dongmei

Ke, Junyuang

The Geopolitics of the Energy Transition

Starting in 2017, KAPSARC and the Clingendael International Energy Program (CIEP) have convened a series of workshops on the Role of Oil in the Low Carbon Energy Transition. This workshop held on April 25th, 2019 took place in Hus Clingendael,…

Behavioral Analysis on Developing a GCC Power Market

Nourah Al Hosain

In 2011, the Gulf Cooperation Council Interconnection Authority (GCCIA) completed the construction of a regional power grid connecting the Gulf states. Its main purpose was to provide backup in case of power emergencies. The grid also increases the likelihood of…

Al Hosain, Nourah

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

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

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

Deepening Cooperation Between Saudi Arabia and China

Dongmei Chen, Wenke Han

In recent decades China and Saudi Arabia have gradually deepened their collaboration in many areas. Five indicators are used to assess the overall progress of the two countries’ collaboration and to help form recommendations for ways to improve the integration between…

Chen, Dongmei

Wenke Han

Abu Dhabi Electricity Sector – Features, Challenges and Opportunities for Market Integration

Shahid Hasan, Turki Alaqeel, Iqbal Adjali, Yagyavalk Bhatt

The emirate of Abu Dhabi was the first in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) to design and implement reforms aimed at moving away from a wholly government-owned vertically-integrated electricity market structure. From 1998, Abu Dhabi introduced several policy, legislative, structural…

Hasan, Shahid

Alaqeel, Turki

Adjali, Iqbal

Bhatt, Yagyavalk

Households’ Demand Response to Changes in Electricity Prices: A Microeconomic-Physical Approach

Walid Matar

Energy economists are interested in how a change in electricity prices prompts a response by way of end-user power demand. It is difficult to estimate price elasticities statistically if historical prices are low and change infrequently, especially in the short…

Matar, Walid

Electricity Tariff Changes in Saudi Arabia 1974-2018

Abeer AlGhamdi

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s households account for around 50% of national power consumption, with more than 7 million residential customers in 2017. The majority of this power is used for air conditioning and cooling systems due to the climate…

AlGhamdi, Abeer