Speaker: Olivier MASSOL, Assistant Professor, Centre for
Economics and Management, IFP School (France)
Date: Tuesday, 28 June 2011
Time: 3:00pm to 5:00pm
Venue: ESI Conference Room
29 Heng Mui Keng Terrace
Block A #10-01
Singapore 119620
Please send us your name, organisation and email address via the ESI website here. For enquiries, please contact Ms. Jan Lui at 65162000.
This seminar will be held under Chatham House rules: “when a meeting, or part thereof, is held under the Chatham House Rule, participants are free to use the information received, but neither the identity nor the affiliation of the speaker(s), nor that of any other participant may be revealed.”
Synopsis
Due to its lower carbon content than other fossil fuels, natural gas is usually depicted as a fuel with good prospects in a carbon-constrained energy market. Indeed, many studies have highlighted its potentially pivotal role. Numerous economic and policy questions are connected with this unevenly distributed, non-renewable source of energy that involves costly infrastructure. Any tentative list of issues should at least include the factors driving the demand for natural gas, the development of international gas infrastructure projects, the role of LNG in connecting what were previously regional markets, the European and Asian dependence on foreign sources, the US-led rapid growth in unconventional gas production and the industrial organization of the emerging unconventional gas industry, and the changing institutional framework governing the international trade of natural gas.
In an effort to promote methodologically-sound analyses, IFP Energies Nouvelles (IFP New Energies) and the IFP School's Centre for Economics and Management have initiated a stream of research aimed specifically at contributing to the global public debate on natural gas.
This research is rooted in applied economics and thus includes the construction of adapted quantitative models. To illustrate the variety of analytic techniques involved in these methodological efforts, the session will address two different but topical issues:
- The development planning problems faced by a small resource-rich economy that must choose a gas monetization policy including LNG exports and/or gas-based industries (methanol, urea, direct reduced iron, aluminium smelting, ...) ; and
- An economic analysis of the motives of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum and the questions raised by experts and modellers.
In his presentation, Olivier Massol will emphasize the capabilities of an adapted modelling strategy to generate new insights and policy-relevant recommendations.
About the speaker
Olivier MASSOL is an Assistant Professor in the Centre for Economics and Management at IFP School, France. He teaches Industrial Organization and Energy Economics and conducts applied economic research. His research interests cover a variety of topics rooted in the field of energy economics. He has had a long-standing interest in the application of quantitative techniques to analyze the industrial organization of natural gas markets.
Previously (from 2000 to 2007), he worked as an economist within the Economic Research Division of Gaz de France (now GDF Suez). Within GDF, he directed a project aimed at analyzing the long-run strategic interactions among gas exporters and co-designed a detailed microeconomic model of the world gas industry. That position enabled him to become actively involved in the construction of scenarios used for corporate planning purposes.
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