Founded in 1982, the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies is a Recognized Independent Centre of the University of Oxford.

Its unique multidisciplinary expertise allows it to examine the economics, the politics and the sociology of energy with a focus on oil and natural gas. Its research spans the international relations between producers and consumers of energy; the economic development of producing nations and the geo-political aspects of all these issues alongside the economics and politics of the environment in relation to energy, including climate change. The Institute’s intellectual independence places it firmly at the centre of the dialogue between consumers and producers, government and industry, academics and policy makers. The Institute serves a worldwide audience with its research and continues to inform understanding of all major energy issues today.


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Latest Publications


Joint Ventures in the Russian Offshore – Positive News but only for the Long Term

Published: 18th May 2012
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The increasing maturity of Russia’s onshore fields, especially those in West Siberia, and the potential for the country’s production to go into sharp decline over the next decade has prompted the Russian government to promote offshore development as a potential solution. President Putin has encouraged his state oil company to seek international partnership to bring [...]

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Categories / Country and Regional Studies, Energy Comments, Energy Comments, Energy Policy, Energy Security, Oil, Oil & Middle East Programme

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How to Spend It: Resource Wealth and the Distribution of Resource Rents

Published: 17th May 2012
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Natural resource revenues differ from other government revenues both in their time profile, and in their political and legal status: they are volatile and exhaustible, and belong to all citizens of the country in which they are located. This paper discusses the theory of natural resource revenues and examines expenditure practices in a range of [...]

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Categories / Energy Economics, Energy Policy, Oil & Middle East Programme, Working Papers, Working Papers

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Protection against Default in Long Term Petroleum Joint Ventures

Published: 15th May 2012
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Sharing costs and risks are the basic foundation of any the joint venture. However, the required financial commitments might be jeopardized either by a co-venturer who cannot afford the payment of the related costs or a co-venturer who simply chooses not to pay its share. The petroleum industry tends to rely on the forfeiture of [...]

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Categories / Energy Security, Finance, Gas, Oil, Oil & Middle East Programme, Working Papers, Working Papers

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Fiscal Policy and Natural Resource Entitlements: Who Benefits from Mexican Oil?

Published: 14th May 2012
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This paper suggests a new approach to analysing the distribution of natural resource revenues and applies it to the case of Mexico. It defines a natural resource entitlement as a citizen’s per capita share of their country’s natural resource rents. The main finding is that, according to official estimates, Mexican fiscal policy transfers oil entitlements [...]

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Categories / Country and Regional Studies, Energy Policy, Oil, Oil & Middle East Programme, Working Papers, Working Papers

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Is Energy Efficiency Sustainable?

Published: 1st May 2012
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This presentation by Malcolm Keay was delivered at a British Institute of Energy Economics seminar on 25 April 2012.  It looks at the links between energy efficiency and sustainability and concludes that they are much more complex than they might appear at first sight.

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Categories / Energy and the Environment, Energy Economics, Energy Policy, Presentations

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The Financialization of Oil Markets: Potential Impacts and Evidence

Published: 18th April 2012
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The financialization of oil futures markets has been held responsible for a variety of phenomena including changes in price volatility, increased co-movement between oil futures prices and other financial asset and commodity prices, a breakdown of the statistical relationship between oil inventories and the price of oil, and an increased influence of the decisions of [...]

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Categories / Energy Policy, Finance, Oil, Oil & Middle East Programme, Presentations, Presentations

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Will There be a Shale Gas Revolution in China by 2020?

Published: 18th April 2012
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This paper, by Fan Gao, assesses the extent to which China is likely to achieve levels of shale gas production by 2020 which would make a meaningful difference to its growing need for imports of pipeline gas and LNG. The study suggests that given the rather disappointing progress on Coal Bed Methane production since exploration [...]

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Categories / Country and Regional Studies, Energy Economics, Gas, Gas Programme, Working Papers

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Lessons from the February 2012 European gas “crisis”

Published: 16th April 2012
By: , Patrick Heather

In February 2012, during a period of extremely cold weather across Russia and large parts of Europe, Gazprom failed to supply all the gas that was requested from it by its non-CIS customers in countries ranging from Poland in the north to Italy and Greece in the south of Europe. This situation led to concerns [...]

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Categories / Country and Regional Studies, Energy Comments, Energy Policy, Energy Security, Gas, Gas Programme

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