Research Library

This paper examines the cash flow and financial issues affecting Venezuela’s PDVSA, as well as the operational challenges facing the country’s oil industry.

This working paper analyzes how Iran's nuclear deal has affected the country's regional policies and stability in the Middle East.

While much has been made in recent years about the increasing liquidity and size of a spot market for liquefied natural gas, most LNG is still sold under confidential, long-term contracts. In fact, in 2013, according to data from the International Group of Liquefied Natural Gas Importers, 73 percent of all LNG trades took place under long-term contracts, which are especially prevalent in Asian markets. Despite the fact that this constitutes an enormous trade, there is very little transparency about how prices are specified, what actual transaction prices are or when pricing terms change. Using publicly available customs data on 16 different trade routes of the largest importers of LNG, graduate fellow Mark Agerton applies econometric techniques to estimate and characterize the empirical relationship between LNG import prices and crude oil prices.

The political institutions that established Venezuela's democracy in the 1960s were deliberately set up to generate a cooperative equilibrium with low stakes of power. The recent political reforms, increasing the stakes of power, have stimulated a complete breakdown in cooperation and a highly polarized political system.