Tag Archives: oil price

Refining Crude Oil – Part 1

Crude oil is what we extract out of the ground; refined products (such as gasoline and diesel) are what we consume. As of end-2007, there were 657 refineries around the world with a combined crude processing capacity of 85 million barrels per day (bpd). This briefing note provides technical background information on the characteristics of … Continue reading

Contracts for Petroleum Development – Part 2

Petroleum contracts are long and complex. Production sharing agreements, the type of contracts being signed in Cambodia, are no exception. However, they are important to the country’s future economic and development options and hence it would be helpful if the public had a basic understanding of how these contracts work and, in particular, how government … Continue reading

Oil Revenue Not Likely Until 2013

COMMERCE ministers from the Mekong region will be warned today at a major conference that countries must  boost trade and transport sector reforms if they hope to boost intraregional trade and reduce reliance on ailing external trade partners. Arjun Thapan, director general of the Southeast Asia department of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), which is … Continue reading

Country Experience with EITI – Part 1

Twenty-seven countries are at various stages of implementing the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI). One of the earliest implementers, Nigeria, estimates that EITI helped increase petroleum revenues to the government by US$ 1 billion in 2004 and 2005. This note reviews the EITI implementation and related experience of some countries, focusing primarily on actions taken … Continue reading

Avoiding the Resource Curse

Many resource-rich countries have fallen prey to the natural resource curse [1]. But a handful of developing countries have managed to escape it. This note examines four resource-rich countries and the policies they have followed since the beginning of the 1970s. One, Nigeria, is a well-publicized case of oil wealth impoverishing rather than enriching the … Continue reading