Energy forecasts rest on price assumptions, and price assumptions rest on shifting foundations, said Statoil Chief Economist Eirik Wærness at an event hosted by Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy this morning, where he presented the Norwegian company’s global energy outlook to 2040. No matter how good the data on how much the world… Keep reading →
Norway’s colossal sovereign wealth fund – reportedly the world’s largest at $750 billion – is known as the ‘oil fund’ as it was created largely from the country’s prudent oil and gas resource revenue management. Less than 1% of the fund is currently invested in real estate, but that’s quickly changing. The fund managers are… Keep reading →
The closing of the American West just over a century ago was thought to be the end of a long chapter of human exploration that was as inspiring and enriching as it often was destructive and painful. New evidence that the far northern reaches of the globe are becoming increasingly passable and habitable means that… Keep reading →
Norway, Alaska and Alberta are broadly recognized as having managed their oil resource wealth relatively effectively, particularly in regards to having avoided the “resource curse” – a seemingly counterintuitive situation in which the economies of countries with substantial natural resource endowments fare worse than those of their non-resource-rich counterparts. Each of the three has established… Keep reading →
By Javier E David In a country where oil wealth has typically been controlled up by oil companies, the concept of the U.S. harnessing its energy boom to shore up its frayed public finances may be hard to conceive. Although state control of natural resources tends to evoke images of authoritarian countries like Venezuela or… Keep reading →
