The role that fossil fuels will play in meeting energy demand is a central question for both energy and climate security at the global level.The political and investment responses will also be crucial factors in defining the geopolitical landscape. Prospects of oil price volatility and insecurity about energy supplies have prompted several responses which will alter the long-term pattern of fossil fuel demand and have far-reaching consequences for how we understand energy security.

Project Aims

In order to provide a platform for regular high level discussion on these and other fossil fuel issues, the Energy, Environment and Development Programme at Chatham House launched the Fossil Fuels Expert Roundtable (FFER) in 2008 with a view to:

• Promote deeper understanding of major geopolitical, economic and environmental issues surrounding global extraction, trade and use of oil, gas and coal
• Test-drive the latest research on fossil fuels issues (from both in-house and international expertise)
• Create opportunities for candid debate amongst stakeholders with different interests and world views

The FFER Series

The Fossil Fuels Expert Roundtable hosts strategic expert round table events throughout the year in addition to convening an annual forecasting event in January to draw out key insights arising from debates during the year and make oil price projections for the next.

Roundtables are only open to invited participants and members of FFER. Members comprise EEDP core supporters and sponsors of FFER. When a meeting is held jointly with another Chatham House programme, its sponsors will also be eligible to take part.

Forthcoming Events

• The Annual Fossil Fuels Forecasting Meeting 2012
  16 January 2012, 09.00 – 13.00,
  Professor Paul Stevens, Antony Froggatt, Glada Lahn, John Mitchell

Past Events

• Unconventional Oil: Economic and Environmental Implications of Oil Sands
  12 September 2011
• One Year On: The Changing Debate Around Shale Gas
  5 July 2011
  Florence Gény, Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, and Statoil
• Resource Alliances for the 21st Century? Evolving Partnerships between International and State-owned Oil Companies
  21 March 2011
  David Rekhviashvili, ExxonMobil and Michael Bradshaw, University of Leicester
• The Annual Fossil Fuels Forecasting Meeting 2011
  7 January 2011
  This special half day seminar covered:
  The price of oil in 2011, Prof Paul Stevens; efficiency and carbon policy agendas in the US and China, Antony Froggatt; carbon price drivers in the EU-ETS, Dr Will Blyth; The Arctic's new role in the resource rush, Dr Amelia Hadfield; and factors that could derail long-term energy trends, John Mitchell.
• Scanning the Deepwater Horizon: Repercussions of the Macondo Blowout on Policy and the Oil Industry
  1 December 2010
  Lucian Pugliaresi, President, Energy Policy Research Foundation (Washington, DC)
• Mind the Gap: What Would a Growing Consensus on Peak Oil Mean for Policy and Investment?
  25 November 2010
  Simon Roberts, Associate Director, Arup Foresight Innovation and Incubator Group; Editor, 2nd Report of the Industry Taskforce on Peak Oil and Energy Security
  
• China's Energy Rise, the US and the New Geopolitics of Energy13 October 2010 Mikkal E Herberg, Research Director, Energy Security Program, National Bureau of Research, US
  
• A Shale Storm: How Unconventional Gas will Change the Global Market
  16 June 2010
  Paul Stevens, Senior Research Fellow and John Mitchell, Associate Fellow, Energy, Environment and Development Programme, Chatham House
• Liquid Assets: LNG Finance, Risk and the Asian Markets
  12 April 2010
  Afonso Reis e Sousa, Director, Taylor-deJongh
  Respondent: Dr Keun-Wook Paik
• Strategic Refining and the Shifting Global Market for Oil Products
  18 February 2010
  Johannes Benigni, Managing Director, JBC Energy, Vienna
• The Annual Fossil Fuels Forecasting Meeting 2010
  12 January 2010
  The meeting had three components:
  - Oil price prospects for 2010 by Professor Paul Stevens
  - International developments relating to carbon-emissions post-Copenhagen
  - Changing demand and trading patterns for oil, gas and coal markets: the long-term picture
• The Future of Iraqi Oil
  24 November 2009
  Professor Paul Stevens, Senior Fellow, Energy, Environment and Development Programme, Chatham House, and Professor Gareth Stansfield, Associate Fellow, Middle East and North Africa Programme, Chatham House
• The New Politics of North Africa-EU Energy Trade
  convened with the Middle East and North Africa Programme
  16 October 2009
  Dr Amelia Hadfield, Associate Fellow, Chatham House and Director, Kent Energy Analysis Group and Jon Marks, Associate Fellow, Chatham House and Managing Director, Crossborder Information
  Chair: Claire Spencer, Head, Middle East and North Africa Programme, Chatham House
• Carbon Capture and Storage: Panacea or Procrastination?
  14 September 2009
  Dr Jon Gibbins, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Imperial College London, and Jim Footner, Senior Climate Change Campaigner, Greenpeace
• Untangling the Sino-Russian Energy Relationship
  convened with the Russia-Eurasia Programme
  10 July 2009
  Professor Xiaojie Xu, China Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), Beijing (former Director of Overseas Investment, CNPC)
• Surviving the Oil Supply Crunch: Liquids, Gases or Electrons?
  6 May 2009
  Dr Gary Kendall, SustainAbility
• How will a World Recession Affect Oil and Gas Investment, Supply and Demand?
  15 April 2009
  Andrew Gould, Chairman and CEO, Schlumberger
• Oil, Gas and International Security: Tackling a Self-fuelling Fire (Chatham House briefing paper launch)
  26 March 2009
  Daniel Litvin, Senior Research Fellow (Energy)
• The Trouble with Transit Oil and Gas Pipelines
  28 January 2009
  Professor Paul Stevens, Senior Research Fellow (Energy), Chatham House
• Launch Meeting - The Libyan Oil Sector
  20 November 2008
  Dr Shokri Ghanem, Chairman of the National Oil Corporation, Libya

Contacts

If you or your organization would like to become a member of the Fossil Fuels Expert Roundtable, please contact:

Glada Lahn
Research Fellow (Energy and Development), Chatham House
+44 (0)20 7957 5750