Global Energy Center

The Saudi stock exchange in Riyadh has approved the trading of Saudi Aramco’s shares on the local stock market, signaling a rapid start to the initial public offering (IPO). The various investment banks looking to place and sell the shares to their clients have given widely different, but generally low, value to the company and the shares.

The recent announcement that the partial initial public offering (IPO) of Saudi Aramco is finally moving forward is either a cause for celebration or consternation, depending on your perspective. The divergence in views comes from the way in which market players and analysts understand the IPO and the role of Aramco in the Saudi economy.

While a disappointment, the United States’ notification of intent to withdraw from the Paris Agreement was already largely ‘priced in’ to political discourse and expectations. What matters most now is continued bold leadership—and hard, prosaic work—by the entities that have at least as much control over the future US emissions trajectory as the federal government.

There are compelling reasons for energy markets, and their governance, to move in the direction of a more transactive energy system. Is blockchain a suitable platform for the transactive electricity market of the future, enabling distributed energy resources to transact with each other and capture value, while collectively helping balance the grid?

A flourishing domestic nuclear energy sector is critical to US national security, both in the interconnections between military and civilian uses of nuclear energy, as well as in foreign policy.

Transatlantic cooperation with a focus on energy security will be essential to addressing global challenges and should be prioritized by US and EU leadership, since energy security translates into national, political, and economic security on both sides of the Atlantic.