[E&E seminars] Special Seminar, 9/12: Time Is Running Out for Oil-Exporting States

[Jameson Twomey]

Good afternoon,

 

We are pleased to announce a seminar featuring two special guest speakers
from Chatham House. The seminar is co-hosted by the Joint Program on the
Science and Policy of Global Change and the MIT Energy Initiative.  For more
information, please visit the MITEI website at
http://mit.edu/mitei/news/seminars or contact Jameson Twomey at
jtwomey at mit.edu. We hope you will join us.

 

***********

 

Time is running out for the oil-exporting states

 

John V. Mitchell, Associate Research Fellow, Chatham House and Research
Adviser, Oxford Institute of Energy Studies

Paul Stevens, Senior Research Fellow for Energy, Chatham House and Emeritus
Professor, Dundee University

 

Date:  Friday, September 12, 2008

Time:  2:00 pm

Location:  Room E40-496 (Muckley Building, 1 Ameherst Street, MIT Campus)

Sponsor:  Co-sponsored by the Joint Program on the Science and Policy of
Global Change and the MIT Energy Initiative

 

Abstract

 

Petroleum-fuelled prosperity is masking the challenge of oil depletion and
removing the sense of urgency that is desperately needed to promote
diversification in oil-exporting states. All eyes are on supply-demand
dynamics instead of how these countries’ economies can be sustained as oil
and gas resources deplete. 

 

A new report by Chatham House, Ending Dependence: Hard Choices for the
Oil-Exporting States, says today’s oil-price boom may be raising the global
profile and financial clout of oil-exporting countries, but it also has
increased their dependence on oil, (and gas) revenues. This cannot continue:
production will level off and eventually fall, and rising energy consumption
at home will reduce the amount available for export. For these countries to
continue to prosper, dependence on oil revenues must be reduced, but time is
running out for finding sufficient alternatives to sustain current or even
moderate rates of growth.

 

The authors of the report will discuss this challenge and the hard choices
that the oil-exporting states face, and the implications for global energy
markets.

 

 

About the speakers

 

John V. Mitchell received a lifetime achievement award for research from
King Abdullah at the opening of the 3rd OPEC Summit in Riyadh in November
2007. Mitchell has written three books, published by Chatham
House/Earthscan: The New Economy of Oil (2001); Companies in a World of
Conflict (editor, 1998); and The New Geopolitics of Energy (1996). He was a
contributor to Oil Titans by Valérie Marcel (Brookings/Chatham House, 2006),
and has written numerous reports, briefing papers and journal articles,
including Oil for Asia (Chatham House, 2007); A New Era for Oil Prices
(Chatham House, 2006); ‘L’autre face de la dependence énergétique’
(Politique étrangère, 2006). He retired in 1993 from British Petroleum where
his posts included Special Adviser to the Managing Directors, Regional
Co-coordinator for BP’s subsidiaries in the Western Hemisphere, and head of
BP’s Policy Review Unit.

 

Paul Stevens was educated as an economist and as a specialist on the Middle
East at Cambridge and the School of Oriental and African Studies, London. He
taught at the American University of Beirut in Lebanon (1973–79),
interspersed with two years as an oil consultant; at the University of
Surrey as lecturer and senior lecturer in economics (1979–93); and as
Professor of Petroleum Policy and Economics at the Centre for Energy,
Petroleum and Mineral Law and Policy, University of Dundee (1993–2008) – a
chair created by BP. Professor Stevens has published extensively on energy
economics, the international petroleum industry, economic development issues
and the political economy of the Gulf. He also works as a consultant for
many companies and governments.

 

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