Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
New oils are emerging in the United States and worldwide. The degree to which global oils differ from one another is increasing, from carbon-laden oils that resist flow to ultra-light petroleum liquids trapped in tight shale oil. Developing these unconventional oils requires a clear departure from business-as-usual practices. The Carnegie Oil Initiative provides expert analysis, strategic guidance, and policy frameworks to manage new oil assets while protecting the climate.
Carnegie’s work to understand emerging new oils has been ongoing since our seminal publication, Understanding Unconventional Oil, in 2012. All publications from this project are archived here.
Given the state’s future oil prospects along with large volumes currently being produced, refined, and sold, it is incumbent that elected officials and the public better understand California’s oils.
The Trump administration, as well as the private sector, should embrace strategies for jointly tackling local air quality and global climate change where there are many goals which naturally align.
Lebanon has embarked on the path of developing an oil and gas sector at a time of increasingly vociferous calls for transparency in the sector worldwide.
Reducing emissions through innovation is technically feasible, and despite a regulatory focus on other fossil fuels, oil will increasingly offer ways to mitigate climate change.
The world of oils is becoming increasingly complex. Compared to a decade ago when there were very few types of oils, new technologies such as fracking have allowed around 300 new oils to come on-stream. (Runtime - 14:55)
Focusing mainly on petroleum products has handicapped efforts to help the oil industry make choices consonant with a low-carbon world.
Taxing climate pollution instead of productivity will be a societal breakthrough.
Innovative and continuous support will be needed to manage the effects of a sustained decline in oil prices, especially in oil-producing and developing countries.
Attention to technological disruption has distracted observers from the fact that politics continues to be the most disruptive force of all in the oil and gas markets.
The oil market has been turned upside down over the past two years. How will future policies, designed to meet the Paris climate agreement, shape the future of oil demand?
