Primary Program
About
Rami Shabaneh is a senior fellow in the Oil and Gas program, with a focus on global gas and hydrogen markets. Rami has nearly 15 years of research and industry experience analyzing energy markets and energy policy. Before joining KAPSARC, Rami worked at Cenovus Energy as a market fundamentals analyst, providing analytic support on specific issues affecting North American gas, natural gas liquids and condensate markets. His work informed the company’s hedging strategies. Before working at Cenovus Energy, Rami spent three years as a research economist at the Canadian Energy Research Institute. He holds a B.Sc. in actuarial science and an M.Sc. in sustainable energy development from the University of Calgary.
Publications
23 May 2024
European Gas Supply Diversification: What Is the Role of Middle Eastern and African Liquefied Natural Gas?This paper investigates the role of the Middle East and Africa (MEA) in supplying liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Europe in the context of sustained Russian gas pipeline disruptions.
14 December 2023
Enabling Blue Hydrogen for a Low- Carbon Future: Certifying Emissions and CO2 StorageAs part of a diverse energy portfolio, hydrogen can support global efforts toward transitioning to a more sustainable energy system. This would align with climate goals, such as those outlined in the Paris Agreement. For hydrogen to fulfill this potential, its production method needs...
10 May 2023
Macroeconomic and Sectoral Effects of the Natural Gas Price: Policy Insights from a Macroeconometric Modelcroeconomic and sectoral assessment of the energy price reform (EPR) can provide policymakers with useful insights regarding price deregulation options. A key feature of this research that differentiates it from many other studies is its modeling framework. The framework first estima...
01 March 2022
The Economics and Resource Potential of Hydrogen Production in Saudi ArabiaEnergy transition discussions, policymakers are increasingly viewing hydrogen as a preferred emissions-free substitute for oil, natural gas and coal in hard-to-abate sectors. However, hydrogen is not a primary energy source but rather is a carrier of energy. Many factors, including i...
23 March 2021
Economic Analysis of Gas Pipeline Trade Cooperation: A GCC case studyNatural gas development across the member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) — including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Qatar, Kuwait, Oman and Bahrain —has become a priority for achieving long-term energy security and for supporting economic diversification ...
06 January 2021
Can Oil Refiners Adjust to a Greater Supply of Shale Oil?The advent of American shale oil and its prospects for continued production growth have raised concerns about whether oil refineries can handle the increasingly lighter crude oil supply. To provide a perspective on this issue, we run a global oil refining model for the years from 201...
08 December 2019
Viability of Seasonal Natural Gas Storage in the Saudi Energy SystemSaudi Arabia expects to double its natural gas production within the next decade. This increased domestic supply is expected to meet the demand for gas from Saudi Arabia’s industrial development and, most importantly, to displace liquid fuels in its electricity sector. Given the stro...
27 October 2019
Assessing Politics in Market Projections-Restarting Japanese Nuclear Reactors and Global Gas MarketsThis paper explores the value of explicitly integrating the modeling of political concerns into a model of energy market projections. This is achieved by assessing the impact on global gas markets of political constraints on restarting Japanese nuclear reactors. The 2018 KAPSARC disc...
02 September 2019
Assessing Energy Policy Instruments: LNG Imports Into Saudi ArabiaNatural gas is already playing a prominent role in diversifying Saudi Arabia’s power mix away from a heavy reliance on oil-based fuels. Between 2010 and 2017, the share of natural gas used in power generation in Saudi Arabia grew from 44% to 54%. The country’s gas fields are being de...
15 November 2018
Assessing the Impact of Natural Gas on Natural Gas Liquids: Policy Challenges and ImperativesNGLs may present a silver lining to the future of natural gas, given their close links. The power sector is usually considered the principal driver of future demand growth. However, natural gas is likely to have a bigger role to play in future, given the essential role of NGLs in dis...
04 June 2018
Potential Effects of Trade Liberalization on China’s Imports of Plastics From the GCCPetrochemical products, particularly plastics, contribute to a significant share of expanding and increasingly diverse trade flows between the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries and China. The petrochemical sector could benefit from a preferential bilateral trade regime between...
20 May 2018
Identifying the Roadblocks for Energy Access: A Case Study for Eastern Africa’s GasNatural gas resources in Tanzania and Mozambique have emerged as a new source of gas supply. While they are poised for export to global gas markets, they can also provide a key source of energy to the rest of Eastern Africa (defined in this paper to include Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, ...
03 May 2016
The Impact of Low Oil and Gas Prices on Gas Markets: A Retrospective Look at 2014-15In the past year, global gas prices have dropped significantly, albeit at unequal paces depending on the region. All else being equal, economists would suggest that this should have generated a positive demand response. However, “all else” was not equal. Prices of other commodities a...
