Mineral Resources and Development
37 items available
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This series aggregates and presents the World Bank`s knowledge on oil, gas, and mining in an accessible format. It is meant to assist knowledge sharing and trigger policy dialogue on topics relevant to managing natural resource wealth sustainably and responsibly. The series is produced by the Extractive Industries Unit of the World Bank. The unit serves as a global technical adviser that supports sustainable development by building capacity and providing extractive industry sector-related advisory services to resource-rich developing countries.
Items in this collection
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Publication
Extracting Lessons on Gender in the Oil and Gas Sector : A Survey and Analysis of the Gendered Impacts of Onshore Oil and Gas Production in Three Developing Countries
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2013-05)The oil, gas, and mining unit series publishes reviews and analyses of sector experience from around the world as well as new findings from analytical work. It places particular emphasis on how the experience and knowledge gained relates to developing country policy makers, communities affected by extractive industries, extractive industry enterprises, and civil society organizations. This paper explores the divergent experiences of women and men who live in areas that are directly affected by oil and gas development, and highlights how the industry specifically contributes to 'gender gaps' in the unequal distribution of assets and risks. Evidence from surveys and interviews with community members, company representatives, and government an official in oil-and gas-affected areas is analyzed and potential solutions are presented to reduce inequality, increase operational efficiency, reduce risks, and foster sustainable development. The paper aims to demonstrate how oil companies, policy makers, and donors, as well as citizens and nonprofits, can benefit from facilitating more equitable sharing of oil and gas wealth, with a particular focus on the inclusion of women. It points out the gains that can be realized through mutual collaboration to minimize harm for those people whose lives and environments are most directly impacted by the industry. Gender, as defined here, is differentiated from biological sex: gender describes the separate behaviors, identities and roles into which males and females are socialized, and contrasts the freedoms and constraints that come with these roles. This paper therefore examines how gender influences risks and opportunities in upstream areas of oil-rich, low income countries. The paper adopts a qualitative approach to research, presenting the perspectives of the people who live in the immediate vicinity of upstream operations and attempting to faithfully interpret what can be learned from their testimonies. -
Publication
Expenditure of Low-Income Households on Energy : Evidence from Africa and Asia
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2010-06)Patterns of household energy use and expenditure have been the subject of a large number of studies. Household expenditures on energy-particularly, how much the poor spend-have policy implications for several reasons. First, policies to mitigate or cope with energy price shocks are increasingly focusing on targeted support to low-income households as a way of limiting the fiscal cost of such policies while offering protection to the most vulnerable members of society. Second, for governments looking to reform energy price subsidies, the effects on household welfare- especially effects on poor households-of price increases resulting from subsidy reduction/removal is an important policy consideration. But subsidies for liquid fuels targeting the poor are difficult to design and implement effectively, because liquid fuels tend to be used more by the rich than by the poor, and are also easy to transport (and hence to divert to non-poor users). For this reason, there is a growing recognition of the need to move away from price subsidies for liquid fuels to alternative forms of targeted assistance to compensate the poor for the adverse effects of higher fuel prices. Third, in areas where many households have not yet begun using modern commercial energy regularly, the amount they can afford to pay for such energy services is a relevant question. Quantifying expenditures on different types of energy at varying income levels provides a basis for addressing these questions. The paper also examines expenditures on motorized passenger transport and food, two items for which the price of oil is an important component of their cost structure and which are consequential in the budget of poor households. -
Publication
Rockets and Feathers : Asymmetric Petroleum Product Pricing in Developing Countries
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2010-06)This paper aims to provide those working in developing countries with a review of the issues that can help address the four questions: 1) are petroleum product margins excessively high at certain times?; 2) Does asymmetry of price responses to cost changes exist and, if so, what are the possible reasons that could account for it?; 3) If there is asymmetry of petroleum product price responsiveness, how large is the cost to consumers compared with symmetric pricing?; And 4) what policies can combat excessive petroleum product margins? The discussion focuses mainly on liberalized markets, because, in markets subject to price control, the pattern of responses of prices to cost changes will be determined partially or largely by the Government. Chapter one describes asymmetric pricing and the structure of the oil market, focusing in particular on the links between the retail sector and the rest of the chain of supply. The chapter next briefly reviews types of legislation that exist in liberalized markets to protect consumers from monopolistic or collusive behavior in petroleum products pricing. Chapter two describes different types of firms' pricing behavior, including both collusive and non collusive behavior, and provides an overview of how lags in pricing behavior arise and the reasons they can lead to asymmetry. Following this section on theories, econometric studies testing for the presence of asymmetric pricing are reviewed, with special reference to those studies carried out in developing countries. Based on these models, a sample calculation of the extra costs to the consumer of asymmetric pricing relative to those under symmetric pricing is given, including an illustration based on a specially constructed estimate for Guatemala. Chapter three provides an overview of policy responses to asymmetric pricing. -
Publication
Environmental Governance in Oil-Producing Developing Countries : Findings from a Survey of 32 Countries
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2010-06)The Petroleum Governance Initiative (PGI) encompasses three general themes, or pillars, that address issues issues of transparency and economic responsibility, environmental sustainability and responsible community development. Of particular interest here is the second pillar, environmental sustainability; the PGI is currently involved in four main activities surrounding this theme: 1) assessing environmental governance and management in oil-producing countries-the topic of this paper; 2) conducting a strategic environmental assessment of oil and gas activity in Mauritania; 3) conducting workshops and preparing a toolkit on decommissioning and abandonment; and 4) providing in-country assistance on environmental management to a limited number of countries. This paper presents the results of a survey undertaken by the PGI to measure the environmental governance of oil-producing nations against a benchmark standard representing a compendium of good management practices for minimizing impacts of oil and gas development. The objective is to identify areas where the World Bank can provide assistance to improve environmental governance and management systems, particularly in those developing countries whose oil and gas industry is rapidly emerging as a major component of gross domestic product. Detecting governance gaps-and, more importantly, facilitating the rapid implementation of corrective measures-is an important challenge for the World Bank in its efforts to preserve natural habitats and the culture of indigenous peoples. -
Publication
Petroleum Markets in Sub-Saharan Africa : Analysis and Assessment of 12 Countries
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2010-03)This regional study takes twelve oil-importing countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and asks the following two questions: does each stage in the supply chain, from import of crude oil or refined products to retail, seem to be efficiently run and are the efficiency gains passed on to end-users? And if not, what are the potential causes and possible means of remedying the problems? The study focuses on Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, Mali, Niger, and Senegal in West Africa and Botswana, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda in East and Southern Africa, covering a wide range of conditions that affect price levels, such as the market size, geography (whether landlocked or coastal), existence of domestic refineries, degree of sector liberalization including pricing, and level of economic development. -
Publication
The Aluminum Industry in West and Central Africa : Lessons Learned and Prospects for the Future
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2009-12)The purpose of this working paper is to evaluate the future of the aluminum industry in West and Central Africa, with a focus on aluminum smelting and its relationship with power generation and availability in the regions. The organization of this study is as follows. It continues with an overview of the global aluminum industry, including a description of the production process, current and projected supply and demand, and the most important cost considerations for companies investing in the industry. Chapter two provides a brief history and future prospects for the aluminum sector in West and Central Africa. Chapter three contains an analysis of the viability of the two most important existing smelters in the regions, Valco in Ghana and Alucam in Cameroon, as well as a briefer analysis of Alscon in Nigeria and the potential for other smelters in the regions. In chapter four, the recent experience of the three large aluminum smelters in southeast Africa is reviewed and lessons are extracted for West and Central Africa. Conclusions and recommendations are in chapter five. -
Publication
Sub-Saharan Africa Refinery Study
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2009-07)Over the past two decades, the growing awareness of the role that emissions play in human health and environmental degradation had led to a general movement in many parts of the world to control emissions to reduce the impacts. This movement has mainly taken two forms: 1) the development and subsequent required use of control devices for stationary sources and vehicle sources and, 2) changes in the specifications of transportation fuels to reduce emissions of the major pollutants. These trends originated in the industrialized countries and are now spreading, at different rates, throughout the world. As in other world regions, the first improvement in the specifications of transportation fuels in Sub-Saharan Africa was the elimination of lead. The phase out of lead is now complete and the World Bank and its partners are looking at the next step the reduction of sulfur in transportation fuels. The growing complexity of the vehicle emission control technologies for both personal vehicles and commercial trucks and the concomitant need for clean fuels.In addition to the growing awareness of the human health and environmental impact of vehicle source emissions, have placed increasing requirements on refineries. Sulfur is not an additive but a natural part of crude oil. Its removal processes presents both technological and economic challenges to refiners. However, by coming later than Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) regions to ultra-low sulfur fuels, SSA refineries are in a position to benefit from the operating experience and process improvements obtained elsewhere in the refining industry. -
Publication
Changing Patterns of Household Expenditures on Energy : A Case Study of Indonesia and Pakistan
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2009-06)This paper applies a decomposition technique using a log mean Divisia index to two sets of household surveys taken several years apart in Indonesia and Pakistan. The methodology enables separation of changes in expenditure on different types of energy into changes in prices, quantities, the share of households using the given form of energy, and total household income. The technique was applied to electricity, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), kerosene, and gasoline in Indonesia, and to natural gas, kerosene, LPG, purchased firewood, collected firewood, dung cake, and other forms of biomass in Pakistan. The methods of analysis presented in this paper could be extended to other commodities or to changes in energy use patterns over longer periods of time, where suitable household expenditure surveys are available. In particular, when household surveys covering the period of high oil prices become available, the analysis of changing household patterns of fuel use will be valuable. The availability of evidence on the use of energy by various household groups will be important for considerations of providing targeted support to low-income households at times of unexpected shocks to energy prices. -
Publication
Changes in End-User Petroleum Product Prices : A Comparison of 48 Countries
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2009-02)This paper presents retail prices of the petroleum products in August 2008 in up to 56 countries, and examines the degree of pass through to consumers of increases in world gasoline and diesel prices since January 2004 in 48 countries. This is the second paper in a series summarizing work undertaken to assess the implications of higher oil prices on fuel use, the downstream petroleum sector, and household fuel consumption in the developing world. It follows a recent publication on a decomposition analysis of vulnerability to oil price increases, where vulnerability is defined as the percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) spent on net imports of crude oil and petroleum products (Bacon and Kojima 2008). This paper focuses on the extent to which international petroleum product price increases have been passed on to consumers. -
Publication
Vulnerability to Oil Price Increases : A Decomposition Analysis of 161 Countries
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2008-08)This paper examines the levels of and changes in vulnerability to oil price increases between 1996 and 2006 in 161 countries for which data are available. Vulnerability defined here as the ratio of the value of net oil imports to gross domestic product (GDP) rises if oil consumption increases and oil production decreases per unit of GDP. By comparing the level of vulnerability of different economies at a point in time, those that are particularly vulnerable to oil price increases can be highlighted. This enables consideration of the factors (variables) that help determine the magnitude of vulnerability. Over time economies change in ways that may make them more vulnerable to oil price increases or less so, and the change in vulnerability will be related to changes in the underlying variables. The analysis this paper uses is a starting point for linking these factors. The study also examined changes in vulnerability by subdividing the period under review into two sub-periods, 1996-2001 and 2001-6. The oil price increase during the first sub-period was small, and correspondingly the change in vulnerability was also limited. The change in vulnerability was greater during the second sub-period, which saw a 2.5-fold price increase in nominal U.S. dollars. This paper highlights the role of changes in the oil share of energy and of energy intensity, both of which can be influenced by government policies, and also by oil production, which, even though it is largely a function of geology, can also be affected by a country's upstream fiscal, contractual, and regulatory frameworks.