Abstract
There are four basic characteristics of the oil resource that have an impact on the working of the “oil system” and its governance: energy density and viscosity, oil as a hydrocarbon and related emissions, the geography of oil, and its non-renewable character. The following contribution shows that the interaction of these oil basics with the major societal and political trends of our times gives rise both to the dynamic growth of oil use and to two problems inherent in the oil system: the ambiguity of oil governance with its market and political rules and the conflict between oil dynamics and climate policies in a pre-peak oil period. My review of the relevant literature on oil history, oil politics, and the economics of oil is designed to facilitate the discussion of two main topics: the empirical relevance of the hypotheses on political versus market instability and the capability of the oil system to adjust to expected peak of oil production.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Adelman MA (1995) The genie out of the bottle—World oil since 1970. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA
Adelman MA (2004) The real oil problem. Regulation 27:16–21, Spring 2004
Babadagli T (2007) Development of mature oil fields—a review. J Petrol Sci Eng 57:221–246
Barsky R, Kilian L (2004) Oil and the macroeconomy since the 1970s. J Econ Perspect 18:115–134
Byman DL, Green JD (1999) The enigma of political stability in the Gulf monarchies. Middle East Rev Int Affairs 3(1999):20–37
Correlje A, van der Linde C (2006) Energy supply security and geopolitics: a European perspective. Energy Policy 34:532–543
Dancs A, Orisich M, Smith S (2008) The military cost of securing energy. Publication of the National Priorities Project.Inc., Northampton, MA
EEA European Environmental Agency: Annual Greenhouse Gas Inventory 2010. Available at http://dataservice.eea.eu(Accessed 22 July 2011)
Friedrichs J (2010) Global energy crunch: how different parts of the world would react to peak oil scenario. Energy Policy 38(8):4562–4569
Hamilton JD (2009) Understanding crude oil prices. Energy J 30:179–206
Höök M, Hirsch R, Aleklett K (2009) Giant oil fields decline rates and their influence on world oil production. Energy Policy 37(2009):2262–2272
IEA World Energy Outlook, Paris 2008, 2012
Jones DW, Leiby PN, Paik IK (2004) Oil price shocks and the macroeconomy—what has been learned since 1996. Energy J 25:1–31
Karbuz S (2007) US military energy consumption—facts and figures. Available at www.energybulletin.net/mode/29925 (Accessed 2 march 2013)
Kilian L (2009) Not all price shocks are alike: disentangling demand and supply shocks in the crude oil market. Am Econ Rev 99:1053–1069
Kilian L, Hicks B (2013) Did unexpectedly strong economic growth cause oil price shocks of 2003-2008. J Forecast 32(5):385–394
Klare MT (2004) Oil and blood—the dangers and consequences of America’s growing oil dependency. Metropolitan Books, London
Klare MT (2008) Rising powers, shrinking planet—the new geopolitics of energy. Metropolitan Books, New York
Le Billon P (2001) The political ecology of war—natural resources and armed conflict. Pol Geogr 20:561–584
Parra F (2004) Oil politics—a modern history of petroleum. Taurus, London, New York
Robelius F (2007) Giant oil fields—the highway to oil, giant oil fields and their importance for future oil. Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis, diva-portal-org
Ross M (2004) What do we know about natural resources and Civil War. J Peace Res 41:337–356
Simmons MR (2002) The Worlds giant oil fields: how many exist? How much do they produce? How fast are they declining? Hubbert Center Newsletter. Available at http://simmonsco-intl.com (Accessed 22 march 2013)
Skinner R, Arnott R (2005) The oil supply and demand context for security of oil supply from GCC countries. Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, Oxford, Available at http://ideas.repec.org/P/wpa/wuwpot/0507003
Smith B (2006) Oil wealth and regime change. In: Dauderstaedt M, Schildberg A (eds) Dead ends of transition—Rentier economies and protectorates. Campus, Frankfurt, New York, pp 114–127
Yergin D (2009) The price—the epic quest for oil, 3rd edn. Free Press, New York/London/Toronto/Sydney
Yergin D (2012) The quest: energy, security, and the remaking of the modern world. The Penguin Press, London
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Ipsen, D. (2015). The Lifecycle of Oil: Problems and Conflicts. In: Hartard, S., Liebert, W. (eds) Competition and Conflicts on Resource Use. Natural Resource Management and Policy, vol 46. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-10954-1_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-10954-1_5
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-10953-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-10954-1
eBook Packages: Business and EconomicsEconomics and Finance (R0)