This paper analyses the factors influencing the price of oil and its likely evolution over the next quarter century. It begins by investigating the fundamental forces shaping long-term oil price developments, highlighting the importance of growth-led demand for oil, particularly that emanating...

Despre OPEC s-a scris foarte mult în literatura de specialitate: de ce a fost creat, ce a realizat, încotro se îndreapta. Studiul comportamentului OPEC a devenit o afacere de proportii pentru profesori, consultanti, analisti politici. Nu numai companiile petroliere si bancile sunt dispuse sa...

Since the late 90s,, European industries of electricity and gas have been subject to a process of concentration at both horizontal and vertical levels. At first glance, this consolidation is quite natural since, on the one hand, the application of European directives to open to competition has...

Air pollution has become a serious issue in many Asian cities. A major cause is the expanding motor vehicle population--with growth rates as high as 23 percent in rapidly growing economies such as China. Experience worldwide has shown that the use of clean fuels (low-lead or unleaded gasoline...

In an electricity industry increasingly characterized by renewable energy sources, there is much controversy surrounding the future of lignite in Germany. In all three lignite mining regions (Rhineland, central Germany, and Lausitz), there are plans for new lignite-fired power stations and...

This paper evaluates changes in fuel procurement practices by coal and gas-fired power plants in the United States following state-level legislation that ended cost-of-service regulation of electricity generation. I find that deregulated plants substantially reduce the price paid for coal (but...

This article studies the likely impact of unconventional gas developments in the U.S. on EU competitiveness. We find, first of all, little evidence for a prosperous unconventional gas development in Europe. Second, the U.S. boom has already a strong impact on both world and European energy...

Technological innovations in horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing have enabled tremendous amounts of natural gas to be extracted profitably from underground shale formations that were long thought to be uneconomical. In this paper, we provide the first estimates of broad-scale welfare...

The petroleum refining industry has changed over the past decades from one in which capacity primarily served local and regional markets to one in which trade in refined petroleum products has become more widespread. We investigate the hypothesis of increasing globalization by examining the...