Recent analysis

Programs

The Global Energy Center develops and promotes pragmatic and nonpartisan policy solutions designed to advance global energy security, enhance economic opportunity, and accelerate pathways to net-zero emissions.

Events

Global Energy Forum

Mar 20, 2017

Downstream oil theft: Implications and next steps

By Dr. Ian M. Ralby

On January 13, 2017, the Atlantic Council launched a major study on downstream oil theft at its inaugural Global Energy Forum in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Downstream Oil Theft: Implications and Next Steps draws on the launch event to examine the implications of the study’s findings and to suggest tangible next steps in both further investigating this global scourge and beginning to confront it effectively.

Energy & Environment Oil and Gas

Global Energy Forum

Jan 6, 2017

Downstream oil theft: Global modalities, trends, and remedies

By Ian M. Ralby

Hydrocarbons crime, in all its forms, has become a significant threat not only to local and regional prosperity but also to global stability and security. Combating this pervasive criminal activity is made only more difficult by the reality that many of those in a position to curb hydrocarbons crime are the ones benefiting from it.

Energy & Environment Oil and Gas

Event Recap

Jun 15, 2016

US Launch: BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2016

By Yigit Erkut

On Wednesday, June 15, 2016, the Atlantic Council hosted the U.S launch of the BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2016 with Spencer Dale, Group Chief Economist for BP. Global energy markets have entered a period of accelerating volatility. The US shale revolution has upended global oil and gas markets. Alternative energy sources are bourgeoning, […]

Energy & Environment Oil and Gas

Content

Article

Apr 16, 2019

The LNG moment: How US production could change more than just markets

By Dr. Paula Stern

Adapted from comments given by The Honorable Paula Stern, Ph.D. at the Atlantic Council IN TURKEY Program’s “New Regional Gas Market Dynamics under LNG Expansion & the Shale Gas Revolution” conference on February 26, 2019, with contributions from Ben Perkins. Last March the Economist ran the headline, “Global powers need to take the geopolitics out […]

Energy & Environment Energy Markets & Governance

EnergySource

Apr 11, 2019

Why the massive floating bomb in the Red Sea needs urgent attention

By Dr. Ian Ralby, Dr. David Soud, and Rohini Ralby

A floating storage and offloading (FSO) terminal less than five miles off the coast of Yemen has turned into a massive bomb—capable of explosion due to its contents and lack of maintenance. The risk of explosion increases by the day, and if that were to happen, not only would it damage or sink any ships […]

Middle East Oil and Gas

EnergySource

Apr 8, 2019

Addressing the invisible supply chain

By Dr. Ian Ralby, Dr. David Soud, and Rohini Ralby

This post is the third in a series of three that focuses on 1) defining, 2) mapping, and 3) addressing the invisible supply chain. You can read the first and second posts here.  Criminals have the advantage of being agile. They are unencumbered by the constraints that impede the governments and institutions arrayed against them. A criminal […]

Oil and Gas

EnergySource

Mar 29, 2019

Black Sea natural gas games: A fork in the road for the BRUA Pipeline project

By Nolan Theisen and John Szabo

Hopes were riding high on the discovery of Romania’s Black Sea natural gas deposits in 2012, which were expected to provide a cheap and local source of the fuel for Central and South Eastern Europe (CSEE). ExxonMobil and OMV Petrom would carry out the offshore production, and the Bulgaria-Romania-Hungary-Austria (BRUA) pipeline project, formally conceived in […]

Central Europe Eastern Europe

Timely Commentary & Analysis

Mar 28, 2019

Mapping the invisible supply chain

By Dr. Ian Ralby, Dr. David Soud, and Rohini Ralby

This post is the second in a series of three that will focus on 1) defining, 2) mapping, and 3) addressing the invisible supply chain. You can read the first post here. In the autumn of 2017, Italian authorities busted a lucrative smuggling ring that was bringing hundreds of millions of liters of stolen Libyan […]

Energy & Environment Oil and Gas

EnergySource

Mar 20, 2019

Defining the invisible supply chain

By Dr. Ian Ralby, Dr. David Soud, and Rohini Ralby

This post is the first in a series of three that will focus on 1) defining, 2) mapping, and 3) addressing the invisible supply chain. In 2014, the Wall Street Journal published a story detailing how the Saltpond Oil Field off the coast of Ghana was exporting as much as five times the crude oil […]

Oil and Gas

EnergySource

Mar 15, 2019

A European view: Europe, Nord Stream 2, and diversification

By Friedbert Pflüger

Preface During his 2019 State of the Union speech, President Donald Trump claimed credit for getting European NATO members to pay an additional $100 billion in military outlays to the alliance by the end of 2020. Similarly, instead of raising the specter of further sanctions on Russia that would impact European allies, the United States […]

Central Europe Eastern Europe

UkraineAlert

Mar 7, 2019

What a $2.8 Million scheme to rip off the state says about corruption in Ukraine

By Matthew Kupfer

Fictional houses, “dead souls,” but real embezzlement — it sounds like the plot of a horror film. But it’s actually a corruption scheme that ran for over eight years in Ukraine’s Kirovograd Oblast. From 2009 to 2017, the management of the regional gas distribution company, Kirovogradgaz, inserted hundreds of fictional addresses into its electronic billing […]

Corruption Oil and Gas

UkraineAlert

Mar 5, 2019

European involvement with Nord Stream 2 is a deal with the devil

By Stephen Blank

Apart from the bypassing of Ukraine and the potential corrupting of German politics, Nord Stream 2 essentially forces German and Eastern European states and customers to subsidize Russian state expenses and unwittingly assist in Naftogaz’s destruction.

Energy Markets & Governance European Union

In the News

Mar 4, 2019

Livingston for Aspenia: America’s oil dilemma: Are low prices still the goal?

By Atlantic Council

Energy & Environment Oil and Gas

Experts

Events