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In the course of the past century the petroleum industry became global and underwent numerous changes in structure as well as in the ownership of its component units. Paralleling these changes, a succession of oil "regimes" attempted to govern prices of crude oil. International political alignments among major oil producing and oil consuming countries also vitally affect changes in industrial structure, whether toward more vertical integration among oil companies, intensified competition between them, or a regionalization of oil markets. With the help from British Petroleum's Statistical Review of World Energy you may identify the key players and be able to discover long-term trends in prices and production. The Joint Oil Data Initiative, opened to the public nin November 2005, also provides global data. You may also benefit from the home page of the library maintained by the Department of Petroleum & Geosystems Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. As for the major oil-producing countries, please visit the OPEC web site, where you can access the OPEC Bulletin and monthly and annual statistical data. Another important source is the International Energy Authority, based in Paris, fo r the OECD oil consuming countries. You may also wish to consult the Oil and Gas Journal. - and its blogs: Eric Watkins Oil Diplomacy Blog: Global Perspectives on Foreign Oil and Gas Issues. Also see Nick Snow Washington Pulse blog. Mikhaila Adams on finances "Engrossed in Energy" blog; Don Stowers, Energy and Capital blog.
To learn about the countries, you can start out from Clement Henry's MENA-politics resource page to various useful research links and to archives of research accomplished by previous students in this and other courses. For information about business contracts see Barrows (for tables of contents, at least, and occasional free samples). To learn more about domestic US energy policies, you might go to various advocacy groups as well as to the US Department of Energy and its country analyses and transport choke points. For Iraq there is Iraq Oil Report. You may also try to view a map (200K) of Caspian pipelines and (240K) connections with China. And you should look at the Kyoto Protocol even if the USA thinks it has better ideas to prevent global warming. And see wshich countries have signed on to the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative - all about publish what you pay - We also have other watchdogs like Revenue Watch - notably Iraq - and Global Witness.
To keep up with the rapidly changing scene, you may access various news sources.
