Research Library

Energy fellow Rachel A. Meidl examines federal and international efforts to assess the safe transport of crude oil by rail and to specifically consider the roles of vapor pressure and volatility in accident scenarios.

The mix of good short-term prospects for oil revenues along with long-term market uncertainties has a clear policy implication for oil-dependent Latin American economies: use the larger short-term revenues to diversify their economies, nonresident fellow José Antonio Ocampo writes in a new issue brief.

The United States appears less exposed to geopolitical risks affecting its oil supply than at any time since the early 1970s due to fracking, climate change and a more diverse energy supply, according to research by energy fellow Jim Krane and Kenneth B. Medlock, senior director of the Center for Energy Studies.

This issue brief examines how produced water recycling in Texas oilfields threatens landowners’ ability to earn revenue from selling frac water and disposal services, a more lucrative revenue stream compared to raising cattle.

OPEC may opt to continue or deepen its oil production cuts at its upcoming May meeting, as a growing number of highly efficient U.S. shale operators now appears able to maintain oil production — and even expand it — at prices that likely are unsustainably low for many major exporters’ national budgets, writes energy fellow Gabriel Collins.

The oil production targets agreed to at the November 30, 2016, OPEC meeting have created the firmest prospect in the past two years of a meaningful oil price recovery. If WTI prices rise and stabilize in the $60/bbl range, how fast can U.S. shale producers respond? This brief addresses the question and highlights the challenges U.S. unconventional liquids producers will likely face during a scale-up. It also points out price and timing inflection points likely to broadly influence industry decision-making.

Governance of the natural gas sector in Argentina is at an incipient stage. The oil and gas sector developed under a centralized management structure in which a relatively insulated government imposed policy on the sector. That structure is well-developed, even if unstable and characterized by lack of credibility. The traditional unilateral government control of the sector is not appropriate for creating a favorable investment climate for the high-cost, high-risk investments required in shale gas or for managing the protests by civil society actors that have erupted against fracking. But the creation of governance as a replacement for government control is only beginning and faces many obstacles to its full development. The evolution of governance will have a major impact on the development of the country's shale gas resources. Consequently, the full development of Argentina's shale gas potential is problematic.

A working paper that reveals some of the possible new directions in U.S. NGLs and their future use in world markets. By Al Troner, president of Asia Pacific Energy Consulting.