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.
A smart carbon tax differentiates among the different chemical entities called “oil,” accounts for GHG emissions along the entire oil supply chain, and includes byproducts that do not fuel transport.
Because of the growing chemical and geological diversity of the new oils, the lack of alternative liquid fuels for transportation, and the size and global scope of oil production and trade, a tax is most needed in the oil sector.
Although Saudi Arabia has appointed a new oil minister, it will most likely continue to maintain its current petroleum production policy.
California has for too long turned a blind eye to squarely managing its own oil, choosing instead to target other states’ and countries’ fossil fuels.
Riyadh is displaying a new foreign policy activism under the leadership of King Salman and his powerful son.
The oil price crash has implications for the global economy, geopolitics, and efforts to limit carbon emissions.
The G7 must carry forward the mandate of wrestling the climate change tragedy of horizons toward a more constructive and less catastrophic denouement.
Despite its massive capital, scope, and durability, the oil sector remains extremely opaque. Open source data are needed to quantify the oil sector’s climate responsibilities.
Rapidly changing global oil markets present fundamental challenges to Saudi Arabia’s ability to use its resource endowment to project global market power.
A selection of experts answer a new question from Judy Dempsey on the foreign and security policy challenges shaping Europe’s role in the world.
