This book addresses energy research from four distinct International Political Economy perspectives: energy security, governance, legal and developmental areas. Energy is too important to be neglected by political scientists. Yet, within the mainstream of the discipline energy research still remains a peripheral area of academic enquiry seeking to plug into the discipline’s theoretical debates. The purpose of this book is to assess how existing perspectives fit with our understanding of social science energy research by focusing on the oil and gas dimension.
The downhill slide in the global price of crude oil, which started mid-2014, had major repercussions across the Middle East for net oil exporters, as well as importers closely connected to the oil-producing countries from the Gulf. Following the Arab uprisings of 2010 and 2011, the oil price decline represented a second major shock for the region in the early twenty-first century – one that has continued to impose constraints, but also provided opportunities. Offering the first comprehensive analysis of the Middle Eastern political economy in response to the 2014 oil price decline, this book connects oil market dynamics with an understanding of socio-political changes. Inspired by rentierism, the contributors present original studies on Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. The studies reveal a large diversity of country-specific policy adjustment strategies: from the migrant workers in the Arab Gulf, who lost out in the post-2014 period but were incapable of repelling burdensome adjustment policies, to Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon, who have never been able to fulfil the expectation that they could benefit from the 2014 oil price decline. With timely contributions on the COVID-19-induced oil price crash in 2020, this collection signifies that rentierism still prevails with regard to both empirical dynamics in the Middle East and academic discussions on its political economy.
With global demand for energy poised to increase by more than half in the next three decades, the supply of safe, reliable, and reasonably priced gas and oil will continue to be of fundamental importance to modern economies. Central to this supply are the pipelines that transport this energy. And while the fundamental economics of the major pipeline networks are the same, the differences in their ownership, commercial development, and operation can provide insight into the workings of market institutions in various nations. Drawing on a century of the world’s experience with gas and oil pipelines, this book illustrates the importance of economics in explaining the evolution of pipeline politics in various countries. It demonstrates that institutional differences influence ownership and regulation, while rents and consumer pricing depend on the size and diversity of existing markets, the depth of regulatory institutions, and the historical structure of the pipeline businesses themselves. The history of pipelines is also rife with social conflict, and Makholm explains how and when institutions in a variety of countries have controlled pipeline behavior—either through economic regulation or government ownership—in the public interest.
This book is the fifth in a series of books on the major petroleum and gas exporting nations, most of them part of the developing world. Because of its gas dimension, Algeria occupies a special position in the global economy, particularly with regard to Europe. At the same time, despite its efforts to diversify the economy, Algeria still finds that its prospects are closely bound to the future of oil and gas.
This book provides a thoroughly researched guide to the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry, providing students, potential investors, academics and policy makers the opportunity to get acquainted with various dimensions of the oil and gas industry.
This Handbook offers a comprehensive overview of the latest research from leading scholars on the international political economy of energy and resources. Highlighting the important conceptual and empirical themes, the chapters study all levels of governance, from global to local, and explore the wide range of issues emerging in a changing political and economic environment.
One of the dominant export-oriented industries in Russia, oil is a major source of tax revenue and wealth. The privatization of these vast assets has made the industry a site not only for conflict between power holders but also a strategic target for international corporations and Western governments. In this thoughtful analysis, a group of international specialists explores the political and economic issues and controversies surrounding the oil industry's move to capitalism. The authors examine the spread of crime and corruption, the role of Russian and Western financial institutions, regional tensions, and the international dimension. As a paradigm for the Russian economy as a whole, the case of oil industry provides invaluable insights for understanding the political and economic problems confronting Russia today.
This book explains the place of oil in the economic and political predicaments that now confront the West. Thompson explains the problems that the rising cost of oil posed in the years leading up to the 2008 crash, and the difficulties that a volatile oil market now poses to economic recovery under the conditions of high debt, low growth and quantitative easing. The author argues that the 'Gordian knot' created by the economic and political dynamics of supply and demand oil in the present international economy poses a fundamental challenge to the assumption of economic progress embedded in Western democratic expectations.
This easy-to-read book presents an elementary yet comprehensive introduction to modern energy economics. Mathematical content is kept to a minimum, and advanced numerical concepts are placed in appendices. The two survey chapters are suitable for readers with little or no formal training in economics. Differing greatly from other energy textbooks, the book aims to provide the reader with an informed advantage. Principally intended as a textbook for undergraduate economics students, it can also be used for self-study or as a reference material.
