Person:
Tordo, Silvana
Author Name Variants
Fields of Specialization
Petroleum sector,
Sovereign wealth funds,
Strategic investment funds,
Climate change adaptation finance
Degrees
ORCID
Departments
Energy and Extractives Global Practice
Externally Hosted Work
Contact Information
Last updated
January 31, 2023
Biography
Silvana Tordo is a Lead Energy Economist at the World Bank’s Energy and Extractives Global Practice where she co-leads the Extractives-led Local Economic Development (ELLED) program. Silvana’s publications cover a wide range of topics, including value creation by national oil companies, allocation of petroleum rights, oil and gas taxation, strategic investment funds, industrial policy, and climate-smart policies.
Publication Search Results
1 - 8 of 8
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Publication
Natural Oil Companies and Value Creation : Volume 2. Case Studies
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2011-03)Approximately two billion dollars a day of petroleum are traded worldwide, which makes petroleum the largest single item in the balance of payments and exchanges between nations. Petroleum represents the larger share in total energy use for most net exporters and net importers. While petroleum taxes are a major source of income for more than 90 countries in the world, poor countries net importers are more vulnerable to price increases than most industrialized economies. This paper has five chapters. Chapter one describes the key features of upstream, midstream, and downstream petroleum operations and how these may impact value creation and policy options. Chapter two draws on ample literature and discusses how changes in the geopolitical and global economic environment and in the host governments' political and economic priorities have affected the rationale for and behavior of National Oil Companies' (NOCs). Rather than providing an in-depth analysis of the philosophical reasons for creating aNOC, this chapter seeks to highlight the special nature of NOCs and how it may affect their existence, objectives, regulation, and behavior. Chapter three proposes a value creation index to measure the contribution of NOCs to social value creation. A conceptual model is also proposed to identify the factors that affect value creation. Chapter four presents the result of an exploratory statistical analysis aimed to determine the relative importance of the drivers of value creation. In addition, the experience of a selected sample of NOCs is analyzed in detail, and lessons of general applicability are derived. Finally, Chapter five summarizes the conclusions. -
Publication
Natural Oil Companies and Value Creation : Volume 3. Data Set
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2011-03-01)Approximately two billion dollars a day of petroleum are traded worldwide, which makes petroleum the largest single item in the balance of payments and exchanges between nations. Petroleum represents the larger share in total energy use for most net exporters and net importers. While petroleum taxes are a major source of income for more than 90 countries in the world, poor countries net importers are more vulnerable to price increases than most industrialized economies. This paper has five chapters. Chapter one describes the key features of upstream, midstream, and downstream petroleum operations and how these may impact value creation and policy options. Chapter two draws on ample literature and discusses how changes in the geopolitical and global economic environment and in the host governments' political and economic priorities have affected the rationale for and behavior of National Oil Companies' (NOCs). Rather than providing an in-depth analysis of the philosophical reasons for creating aNOC, this chapter seeks to highlight the special nature of NOCs and how it may affect their existence, objectives, regulation, and behavior. Chapter three proposes a value creation index to measure the contribution of NOCs to social value creation. A conceptual model is also proposed to identify the factors that affect value creation. Chapter four presents the result of an exploratory statistical analysis aimed to determine the relative importance of the drivers of value creation. In addition, the experience of a selected sample of NOCs is analyzed in detail, and lessons of general applicability are derived. Finally, Chapter five summarizes the conclusions. -
Publication
Crude Oil Price Differentials and Differences in Oil Qualities : A Statistical Analysis
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2005-10)This report updates and extends previous work by a statistical analysis of the relationship between crude price differentials and three quality differentials, as well as transport costs and seasonal effects. In addition to the API (American Petroleum Institute) gravity number and the sulfur content of the crudes, which are the qualities generally included in existing analysis, the report presents the impact of acidity (measured by the Total Acid Number - TAN) on the price differential. This is because acidity has become increasingly important as the volume of high acid crudes, particularly from West Africa, has steadily increased in recent years. -
Publication
Experiences with Oil Funds : Institutional and Financial Aspects
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2006-06)This study brings together detailed information on the creation, operation, and financial performance of 12 oil funds and 3 other resource funds. The report looks at various funds in Alaska, Alberta, Azerbaijan, Norway, Chad, Sao Tome Principe, Timor, Chile, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Oman, Venezuela, and Russia. The purpose of the study is to provide comparative information on the backgrounds of the creation of these funds, the legislation used to do so, the details of the organization and management of the funds, and of their financial performance. The report opens with a brief review of the reasons for establishing an oil fund and the principal issues involved. The report then provides detailed coverage of four oil funds where there is substantial public information about the operation and performance of the funds. The final chapter provides some comparative material on the different funds and explores the construction of a set of indicators for good practice in the design of the funds. The appendixes contain the legislation which created the governing funds. -
Publication
Crude Oil Prices : Predicting Price Differentials Based on Quality
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2004-10)Many developing countries are becoming oil exporters, producing crude oils that often differ markedly in quality from those principally traded. Governments must predict the prices of such crudes, to forecast revenue and evaluate the fairness of the price they receive from companies selling on their behalf. Oil companies, and industry consultants, have models for analyzing price differentials with well-known "marker" crudes, but these models have not been widely known, or adapted to account for increasingly important quality characteristics, such as acidity. This note explains a methodology for price analysis, and a new extension for incorporating acidity, which can have a big effect on the price differential. -
Publication
Managing Resource Rents : The Special Challenges in Postconflict Countries
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2006-02)Resource flows from extractive industries can be a lifeline for postconflict countries, helping to fund critical reconstruction needs. But these resources present issues not found elsewhere in the economy and need to be well managed. Sector governance principles that apply to oil-producing countries in general are even more important in postconflict countries. This note discusses these principles and shows how they apply in two cases, Timor-Leste and Sudan. -
Publication
Petroleum Exploration and Production Rights : Allocation Strategies and Design Issues
(World Bank, 2009-11-01)Petroleum has become an integral part of today's global economy and a key component of many national economies. Hence, the presence of petroleum in meaningful quantities can have important economic, developmental, and strategic consequences for a country. While a country's petroleum resource base is a gift of nature, translating this resource into saleable crude oil requires investment and effort. Whether governments choose to invest directly or allow private investors to do so, their primary concern should be to maximize the social benefits derived from the exploitation of the resource base. In practice, however, defining what constitutes maximum social welfare is essentially a political question, which helps explain the variety of objectives pursued by governments over time. In order to exploit their natural resources efficiently, many governments rely on private oil companies. Governments have a challenging task in deciding which companies should be awarded the exclusive rights to explore, develop, and produce their resources, and on what conditions such rights should be awarded. There is little empirical documentation on the design and relative effectiveness of alternative systems for the allocation of petroleum exploration, development, and production (E&P) rights and their policy implications. This paper analyzes the available evidence on the advantages and disadvantages of various practices used by petroleum producing countries to allocate petroleum E&P rights, and draws conclusions about the optimal design of E&P allocation systems. -
Publication
Natural Oil Companies and Value Creation
(World Bank, 2011-07-13)Approximately two billion dollars a day of petroleum are traded worldwide, which makes petroleum the largest single item in the balance of payments and exchanges between nations. Petroleum represents the larger share in total energy use for most net exporters and net importers. While petroleum taxes are a major source of income for more than 90 countries in the world, poor countries net importers are more vulnerable to price increases than most industrialized economies. This paper has five chapters. Chapter one describes the key features of upstream, midstream, and downstream petroleum operations and how these may impact value creation and policy options. Chapter two draws on ample literature and discusses how changes in the geopolitical and global economic environment and in the host governments' political and economic priorities have affected the rationale for and behavior of National Oil Companies' (NOCs). Rather than providing an in-depth analysis of the philosophical reasons for creating aNOC, this chapter seeks to highlight the special nature of NOCs and how it may affect their existence, objectives, regulation, and behavior. Chapter three proposes a value creation index to measure the contribution of NOCs to social value creation. A conceptual model is also proposed to identify the factors that affect value creation. Chapter four presents the result of an exploratory statistical analysis aimed to determine the relative importance of the drivers of value creation. In addition, the experience of a selected sample of NOCs is analyzed in detail, and lessons of general applicability are derived. Finally, Chapter five summarizes the conclusions.