SeminarTuesday 21 May 2013
6:00pm – 7:30pm
Energy Security in the Middle East and North Africa
Drinks reception from 8:00pm
13/14 Cornwall Terrace (Outer Circle), London, NW1 4QP
Organised by The Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation
The security of energy supply remains the most important objective of current energy policy, and for this reason countries often work to reduce their reliance on energy imports. Any disruption of energy supplies as a result of political turmoil and/or terrorism in oil- or gas-producing nations can have serious economic, political and security implications for many countries.
This seminar focused on the economic and political aspects of energy security in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), and the speakers discussed the likely effects of political unrest on present and future energy production in the region. Attacks on energy infrastructure, such as the BP incident in Algeria in January, were examined in pursuit of an improved security environment for the civilian sector. Instability in MENA countries due to tensions with the West, terrorism and regional conflicts is a major foreign policy issue for many states and there is a pressing need for international cooperation to provide sustainable oil or gas supplies. After all, energy security is an important part of a comprehensive security policy for the international community as a whole.
About the contributors
Professor Bassam Fattouh
Professor Bassam Fattouh is Director of the Oil and the Middle East Programme at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, Research Fellow at St Antony’s College, Oxford University; and Professor at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.
He has published a variety of articles on the international oil pricing system, OPEC pricing power, security of Middle Eastern oil supplies, the dynamics of oil prices and oil price differentials. His articles have appeared in Energy Economics, The Energy Journal, and Energy Policy. Recently he served as a member of an independent expert group established to provide recommendations to the 12th International Energy Forum (IEF) Ministerial Meeting in Cancun (March 2010) for strengthening the architecture of the producer-consumer dialogue through the IEF and reducing energy market volatility. He has also published in non-energy related areas in the Journal of Development Economics, Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Economic Inquiry, Empirical Economics, Journal of Financial Intermediation, Economics Letters and Macroeconomic Dynamics.
Mr Ken Iwasaki
Ken Iwasaki is the Nippon TV (NTV) London Bureau Chief and has been in this post since 2009. He has covered events in Iraq and the ‘Arab Spring,’ alongside events in other Middle Eastern countries and Turkey. Mr Iwasaki studied politics and economics at Waseda University and joined NTV in 1992 as a social news reporter and foreign news reporter. Before taking up his current position in London, he was Cairo Bureau Chief from 2000 to 2005, covering the Iraq War, the Afghanistan War and the Isreali Palestinian conflict.