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Energy Futures

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Energy Futures

Palgrave Macmillan,

15 min read
10 take-aways
Audio & text

What's inside?

Oil industry scholars look toward technology, small company efforts and national reforms for supply relief.

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Editorial Rating

7

Qualities

  • Applicable

Recommendation

This volume collates submissions to a conference organized in November 2005 by the International Institute for Management Development (IMD). Eighteen experts discuss the present and future situation of the energy industry. Readers looking for a single book that will provide a reasonably comprehensive overview of energy challenges and possible solutions will find it here. This small volume includes ample data, political and economic analyses, technology outlooks and case studies. The book does not make a single, sustained argument. The only thing most essays have in common is the fact that they address either the upstream or the downstream picture of energy (chiefly petroleum) supply and demand. That said, getAbstract finds that the presentation is lucid, the prose is generally not too heavily burdened with industry jargon to be intelligible, and the issues raised are timely and undeniably important.

Summary

"Context"

World oil demand is growing faster than it has for a quarter-century. Profits are rising in tandem with worries about their economic implications. Rising oil demand can affect economic growth in producing and consuming countries, inflation, business models, market and regulatory developments, and oil exploration and production.

Current real prices for crude oil have not yet come close to 1970s levels, yet prices may not be stable. The International Energy Agency (IEA) expects dramatic growth in oil consumption through 2030. Statistically, these forecasts depend on anticipated population growth and expanded production. Even if technological progress reduces the world economy's energy intensity, people will still need roughly twice the amount of energy now being consumed. If prices remain high or increase, the industry is likely to make more efforts to develop oil substitutes. However, producers may be unable to increase the oil supply significantly. Some countries are finding it difficult even to maintain their present levels of production. Countries with oil resources have many options. They can court the right kind of oil companies, rely on their own resources...

About the Author

Editor Ralf Boscheck is the Lundin Family Professor of Economics and Business Policy at IMD Lausanne, Switzerland.

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