Understand the history and current politics of oil and its importance in both domestic and international relations and how to use this knowledge in decision making.

What will you learn?

On completion of this course, participants are expected to be able to:

• Understand political state systems to aid future decision making

• Identify the aims and interests of international energy organizations and other key players

• Realize the role of international law, domestic oil laws and local regulations placed on foreign companies

• Recognize the interaction between domestic and international politics

• Consider the goals of private companies, states and international organizations

• Analyze the current geopolitical climate in oil producing areas of the world

• Understand how geopolitics affects both access to licenses as well as supply and demand

• Improve the management of risks associated with competition from new markets

• Recognize the forces driving demand for energy and economic growth

• Identify the impact of politically unstable regimes on the global oil market

Who should participate?

Professionals empowered with strategic planning, business development and investment responsibilities that need to understand the current geopolitical climate affecting the global Oil & Gas market.

Course Content

Participants are grouped in teams and each team acts as a national or international petroleum company that has just entered into a new petroleum province in the business simulation OilSim. Each team has a strategic brief, and the challenge for the team is to meet its own strategic objectives through a political process in the host country. An experienced political scientist guides the participants through the whole process and teaches the participants to find the relevant information for future decision making.

Geopolitics has a fundamental effect on the level of global oil production and the access to oil. With major changes in the frames of oil production, uncertainty about regimes and volatile oil prices, the impact of geopolitics and political understanding of the oil scene is more important than ever.

This program explores the political elements in the process of oil and gas exploration licenses and continuous development of the oil industry. It gives the participants the tools to identify the players in the field, where to find relevant information and to analyze the relevant geopolitical situation for a given exploration bid or the long term strategy of a company, institution or organization.

Using our OilSim learning platform, participants are divided into teams and take on the role of an Oil Company, either a private local or international oil company (IOC), a national oil company (NOC), or a Ministry of Oil in a fictitious country. Teams work their way through the challenges with the emphasis on consideration of the geopolitical situation, to gain the best possible outcome for their company or country.

International Energy Politics

Through cases the course will work with the geopolitical developments from all regions, giving participants an overview of the key global trends and geopolitical risks. We examine the relevant international energy organizations and other organizations that might influence the energy area such as Transparency International, Wikileaks, climate organizations etc.

Current Producers

The course will give the participants an understanding of the turmoil in the Middle East, which has the largest reserve of hydrocarbons, and give tools to look at the stability of countries with known oil resources. It looks at existing producers such as the US and EU, and also at emerging producers such as China and the Gulf of Guinea.
We explore what the geopolitical trends mean to regional development of oil and gas.

The course Looks at the trends, opportunities and risks in newer oil producing nations, such as Ghana, Uganda and Mauritania. Will they become major players?

Energy security

The impact of sustainability movements and the climate change debate also set new rules for oil production. All countries now integrate energy security into their long term geopolitical strategy because future growth is linked to stable energy supplies.

The program will provide the necessary overview to understand and be able to identify the relevant political variables in domestic, regional and global affairs that can influence the specific oil license on short and long term. This includes specific political situations as well as the change of game with the growing number of NOC sitting on the majority of the known resources today and that one minor incident in one country can initiate major changes in other countries.

The course teaches the participants to identify other threats that might influence the demand and supply of especially oil and gas but also energy in general.

Climate Change

Understand how the new climate change agenda will affect the political agenda of consumer states. What will the environmental challenges, including global warming, mean to the oil and gas industry?

International Relations

We look at how oil and gas become a major currency between countries, using examples such as China which has built the first pipeline linking it to the gas fields in Turkmenistan. In doing so it is challenging the domination of Russia. Will international companies get access to the large gas fields, and if so, on what terms?

Political influence on Oil Price

We evaluate leverage on political developments and its associated opportunities and risks in the global Oil & Gas market.

Energy as power politics

The course explores the impact of geopolitics on worldwide supply and demand, for crude oil, refined products, natural gas and LNG. Participants will consider energy as a part of politics.