Rustat Report on the Geopolitics of Oil and Energy
On 4 April 2012, the Rustat Conferences brought together experts to consider issues such as: sustainability, clean energy, security of supply, new technologies, peak oil and infrastructure.
The current global energy system is unsustainable in its present form for a variety of reasons: population growth, development, economics and investment, and geopolitics. In the absence of immediate replacement technologies and clean energy forms that are scalable and affordable, there is a continued reliance on conventional sources of energy and related infrastructure. Against this background, the transformation of the energy outlook of a number of countries and regions - thanks to shale oil and gas, tar sand, tight oil and related technologies, breakthroughs in drilling, and rising global energy demand - is leading to a shift in some of the long-standing geopolitical relationships with implications not only for foreign and economic policies but also climate change and the environment.
This Rustat Conference addressed a range of these concerns in round-table sessions with expert speakers and participants drawn from academia, industry and government.
A report, including a list of participants and the agenda for the day, can be downloaded here.
