Rami Shabaneh

Research Associate

  • Primary Program Markets and Industrial Development
  • Research Interests Oil and gas markets, NGLs, and petrochemicals

Biography

Rami is a KAPSARC research associate focusing on global gas and liquids markets. He has more than 10 years of professional research and industry experience in energy and market analysis. Prior to joining KAPSARC, Rami worked as a fundamentals analyst advising management on specific issues affecting North American natural gas and NGLs markets.

 

Publications

See all Rami’s publications
  • Book/book chapter
  • Discussion papers
  • Data Insights
  • Instant Insights
  • Commentaries
  • KAPSARC journal article
  • External journal articles
The Future of Gas in the Gulf: Continuity and Change

The Future of Gas in the Gulf: Continuity and Change

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 studies of a smaller set of countries, but those of critical regional and international importance to the future of gas: Qatar, Iran, Oman, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, Iraq and Bahrain.  Over the past decade, Gulf gas production and demand have expanded rapidly, and the next decade is likely to see further major expansions. The only substantial increase in LNG exports in the 2010s was from Qatar and a smaller, but still very significant, increase is planned for the 2020s. This book finds that the Gulf will play a substantial role in the expansion of global gas supply and demand at least until 2030, and probably beyond, and will therefore remain an extremely important region for gas and energy researchers over the next decade.   https://www.oxfordenergy.org/shop/the-future-of-gas-in-the-gulf-continuity-and-change/?v=3dd6b9265ff1

June 15, 2019
Viability of Seasonal Natural Gas Storage in the Saudi Energy System

Viability of Seasonal Natural Gas Storage in the Saudi Energy System

Saudi Arabia expects to double its natural gas production within the next decade. This increased domestic supply is expected to meet the demand for gas from Saudi Arabia’s industrial development and, most importantly, to displace liquid fuels in its electricity sector. Given the strong seasonal variability of the latter, underground gas storage (UGS) can help ensure the availability of gas to meet peak power load.

December 8, 2019
Assessing Politics in Market Projections-Restarting Japanese Nuclear Reactors and Global Gas Markets

Assessing Politics in Market Projections-Restarting Japanese Nuclear Reactors and Global Gas Markets

This paper explores the value of explicitly integrating the modeling of political concerns into a model of energy market projections. This is achieved by assessing the impact on global gas markets of political constraints on restarting Japanese nuclear reactors. The 2018 KAPSARC discussion paper cited above utilized the KAPSARC Toolkit for Behavioral Analysis (KTAB) to determine the political will for such a policy decision.

October 27, 2019
Assessing Energy Policy Instruments: LNG Imports Into Saudi Arabia

Assessing Energy Policy Instruments: LNG Imports Into Saudi Arabia

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 44% to 54%. The country’s gas fields are being developed to increase domestic gas supplies. However, imported liquefied natural gas (LNG) could remedy the near-term scarcity of gas from domestic sources and provide the support needed to integrate more renewable and other alternative sources of energy into the country’s power mix. Developments in global gas markets in recent years, including procurement and technological innovations in LNG, have unlocked value for producers and consumers.

September 2, 2019
Assessing the Impact of Natural Gas on Natural Gas Liquids: Policy Challenges and Imperatives

Assessing the Impact of Natural Gas on Natural Gas Liquids: Policy Challenges and Imperatives

The supply growth of natural gas liquids (NGLs) globally within the last decade is unprecedented. The future global demand growth for NGLs is expected to be strong in areas where relevant industries are garnering robust investment and policymakers support the use of NGLs. However, NGLs are hostage to the fate of natural gas markets, as their production is largely tied to the future production of natural gas. Competition from cheaper coal, calls to rein in carbon emissions from fossil energy, and the rapidly declining costs of renewable technologies imply that natural gas has to fight for its place in the future fuel mix. NGLs may present a silver lining to the future of natural gas, given their close links. The power sector is usually considered the principal driver of future demand growth. However, natural gas is likely to have a bigger role to play in future, given the essential role of NGLs in displacing polluting fuels for cooking and heating, as a feedstock for petrochemical plants that produce thousands of consumer goods.

November 15, 2018
Potential Effects of Trade Liberalization on China’s Imports of Plastics From the GCC

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

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 GCC, but has been a bone of contention in the GCC-China Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiation process. This study applies a dual-stage model of import demand functions to estimate the impact of trade liberalization scenarios, within an FTA framework, on China’s imports of major plastics from the GCC and the rest of the world. It assesses the implications of these scenarios for all parties.

June 4, 2018
Identifying the Roadblocks for Energy Access: A Case Study for Eastern Africa’s Gas

Identifying the Roadblocks for Energy Access: A Case Study for Eastern Africa’s Gas

Natural gas resources in Tanzania and Mozambique have emerged as a new source of gas supply. While they are poised for export to global gas markets, they can also provide a key source of energy to the rest of Eastern Africa (defined in this paper to include Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda), where millions of inhabitants are currently living without access to electricity and clean cooking. Natural gas could also potentially be a driver for industrialization and economic growth. But before delving into the potential gas demand and opportunities for gas utilization in the region, it is important to take a step back to analyze the current energy picture in Eastern Africa and look into the social and development plans in place in the region. Despite large natural resource potential across the region of Eastern Africa (except South Africa), low electricity access and energy access rates have hampered economic growth and increased dependency on traditional biomass. This scoping study investigates energy access issues in the residential, industrial and transport sectors.

May 20, 2018
The Impact of Low Oil and Gas Prices on Gas Markets: A Retrospective Look at 2014-15

The Impact of Low Oil and Gas Prices on Gas Markets: A Retrospective Look at 2014-15

In the past year, global gas prices have dropped significantly, albeit at unequal paces depending on the region. All else being equal, economists would suggest that this should have generated a positive demand response. However, “all else” was not equal. Prices of other commodities also declined while economic growth forecasts were downgraded.

May 3, 2016
Crude Oil and Refined Products

Crude Oil and Refined Products

The power sector in Saudi Arabia makes up just over half of the natural gas demand in the Kingdom, followed by the industrial sector and non-energy use as a feedstock for petrochemicals.

April 6, 2020
U.S.-Iran Tensions and the Waiver Renewal for Iranian Gas Exports to Iraq

U.S.-Iran Tensions and the Waiver Renewal for Iranian Gas Exports to Iraq

Following the assassination of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad on January 3, as a result of a United States (U.S.) airstrike, the Iraqi Parliament passed a resolution stating that it “must work to end the presence of any foreign troops on Iraqi soil and prohibit them from using its land, airspace or water for any reason.”

January 30, 2020
Implications of IMO 2020: The Potential for High Sulfur Fuel Oil Penetration in Saudi Arabia

Implications of IMO 2020: The Potential for High Sulfur Fuel Oil Penetration in Saudi Arabia

January 1, 2020 marks the enforcement of the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) rule on limiting sulfur emissions from ships (IMO 2020). The rule mandates ships to reduce the sulfur content in their fuels to 0.5% from the current 3.5%. This suggests that ship owners and operators need to replace about 3 million barrels per day (MMb/d) of heavy fuel oil (HFO) with high sulfur content – known as high sulfur fuel oil (HSFO).

December 12, 2019
India’s Push to Renegotiate Long-Term LNG Contracts

India’s Push to Renegotiate Long-Term LNG Contracts

On August 26, 2019, India’s petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan announced that he would consider “a review of liquefied natural gas (LNG) prices under [India’s] long-term contracts”. However, Mr. Pradhan did not lay out a timeline for the review and reiterated that existing contracts would be honored.

December 8, 2019
Natural Gas Strategies for the Saudi Energy System

Natural Gas Strategies for the Saudi Energy System

Fuel prices in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia have historically been below international market values. This has stimulated rapid growth in primary energy demand. The Kingdom’s natural gas demand has now outstripped its domestic production, forcing the government to impose rations on consuming sectors, and raising expectations that natural gas production and prices in Saudi Arabia will increase over the next decade.

January 13, 2020
Aramco’s LNG strategy: Opportunities and Options

Aramco’s LNG strategy: Opportunities and Options

Saudi Arabia has taken a major step into global gas markets with Saudi Aramco signing a heads of agreement (HoA) with Sempra Energy. The HoA includes a 20-year sales and purchase agreement (SPA) for 5 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from phase 1 of the proposed Port Arthur LNG project in Texas. The agreement also includes a possible 25% equity stake from Aramco in the project.

December 4, 2019
Economic Impacts of the Petroleum Industry in Canada

Economic Impacts of the Petroleum Industry in Canada

Canadian Energy Research Institute

2009
Comparative Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of Base Load Electricity Generation in Ontario

Comparative Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of Base Load Electricity Generation in Ontario

Canadian Energy Research Institute

2008

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