PUBLICATIONS
AP Photo/Jae C. Hong
July 2012
North American Oil and Gas Reserves: Prospects and Policy
By Jonathan Bailey and Henry Lee, Director, Environment and Natural Resources Program
Expanding estimates of North America’s supply of accessible shale gas, and more recently, shale oil, have been trumpeted in many circles as the most significant energy resource development since the oil boom in Texas in the late 1920s. How large are these resources? What challenges will need to be overcome if their potential is to be realized? How will they impact U.S. energy policy?
To address these questions, the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and two of its programs ― the Environment and Natural Resources Program and the Geopolitics of Energy Project ― convened a group of experts from business, government, and academia on May 1, 2012, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The following report summarizes the major issues discussed at this workshop. Since the discussions were off-the-record, no comments are attributed to any individual. Rather, this report attempts to summarize the arguments on all sides of the issues.
AP Photo/Nabil al-Jurani, File
June 2012
"Oil: The Next Revolution"
By Leonardo Maugeri, Roy Family Fellow, Geopolitics of Energy Project
A new study by Belfer Center Geopolitics of Energy researcher Leonardo Maugeri finds that oil production capacity is surging in the United States and several other countries at such a fast pace that global oil output capacity is likely to grow by nearly 20 percent by 2020. This could prompt a plunge or even a collapse in oil prices. The findings by Maugeri, a former oil industry executive who is now a fellow at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center, are based on an original field-by-field analysis of the world’s major oil formations and exploration projects.
Photo by Sharon Wilke
May 15, 2009
The Geopolitics of Energy Seminar Series
By Meghan L. O'Sullivan, Jeane Kirkpatrick Professor of the Practice of International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School
Understanding how energy shapes the grand strategies of China, Russia, India, Europe, Saudi Arabia, and others is vital in mapping out the contours of the future global order. These seminars are the basis for identifying possible new nodes of international conflict and cooperation, and deficiencies in existing international structures. The seminars also draw attention to geopolitical problems that could arise as the United States and other countries make energy more central in their plans, as well as well as highlight the geopolitical implications of possible shifts away from fossil fuels. Watch videos of the seminars online.
Summer 2011
Belfer Center Newsletter Summer 2011
By Sharon Wilke, Associate Director of Communications
The Summer 2011 issue of the Belfer Center newsletter features analysis and advice by Belfer Center scholars regarding the historic upheavals in the Middle East and the disastrous consequences of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. The Center’s new Geopolitics of Energy project is also highlighted, along with efforts by the Project on Managing the Atom to strengthen nuclear export rules.
Winter 2012-2013
"On Tap at Belfer Center: Oil and Water"
Belfer Center Newsletter
Leonardo Maugeri writes that oil production capacity is surging in the United States and several other countries at such a fast pace that global oil output capacity is likely to grow by nearly 20 percent by 2020—possibly prompting a plunge or even a collapse in oil prices.
Summer 2012
Case Competition Encourages Student Involvement, Real-World Problem Solving
Belfer Center Newsletter
By Traci Farrell, Former Communications Assistant
The Belfer Center’s Geopolitics of Energy Project challenged students across the Harvard and MIT communities to develop a strategy to solve the case, “New Finds of Energy in the Eastern Mediterranean: Cause for Conflict or Cooperation?” as part of the project’s second annual energy policy case competition held at the Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) on April 19.
Summer 2011
"New Geopolitics of Energy Project Weighs Fuel Options"
Belfer Center Newsletter
As the Arab Spring raises oil prices and concerns about energy security around the globe,the links between energy, international security, and global politics are more dramatic than ever. The new Geopolitics of Energy Project at the Belfer Center has set out to tackle some of the most intriguing and pressing issues at this intersection.
Wikipedia Commons
February 14, 2013
"'Energy Independence' Alone Won't Boost U.S. Power"
Bloomberg View
By Meghan L. O'Sullivan, Jeane Kirkpatrick Professor of the Practice of International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School
“We are finally poised to control our own energy future,” said President Barack Obama in his State of the Union message, noting the drastic increase in American energy production from unconventional oil and gas resources.
Controlling our energy future means more than just producing a greater amount of our own energy. It also means harnessing this energy renaissance to meet our global geopolitical needs. We’ve begun to reap the many economic benefits this boom brings—such as easing the trade deficit and lowering carbon emissions. But we have only started to appreciate how this energy renaissance affects our larger strategic environment. And, not surprisingly, many readers of the tea leaves have confused reality with desire, by hoping more energy at home will mean keeping out of the volatile politics and economics of the Middle East.
AP Images
December 13, 2012
"Egypt’s Constitution Needs an Expiration Date"
Bloomberg View
By Meghan L. O'Sullivan, Jeane Kirkpatrick Professor of the Practice of International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School
Egyptians living abroad began voting Dec. 12 on whether to accept the nation’s proposed new constitution. Yet, even as they took to the polls and those in the country prepared to vote this weekend, President Mohamed Mursi continued to meet with a “national dialogue” committee on compromises that might allow more members of the opposition to accept the controversial draft.
November 20, 2012
"The IEA's Poor Performance and the Risks of an Era of Oil Abundance"
By Leonardo Maugeri, Roy Family Fellow, Geopolitics of Energy Project
"Although quite late, the International Energy Agency (IEA) has noticed that American crude oil production is increasing at an unprecedented rate, and that it will continue to do so. In a report published only one year ago, the Agency had largely underestimated the phenomenon, as had many others....In its new World Energy Outlook 2012, the IEA now expects that the US will produce 11.1 million barrels per day....But the IEA numbers suffer from more than tardiness," writes Leonardo Maugeri, a former senior executive at Eni and current fellow with the Belfer Center's Geopolitics of Energy Project
