International Oil Trade Research Articles

Fatty acid composition of olive oil in response to fruit canopy position and artificial shading

The fatty acid composition of olive oil is greatly affected by geographical origin, and olive oil is often promoted by health experts because of its high oleic acid concentration. Unfortunately, recent evidence has shown that oleic acid (%) can be low in many non-Mediterranean regions due to high temperatures. Thus, management tools related to irrigation, fertilization, and canopy management are being sought that might improve fatty acid composition in such regions. The objectives here were to: 1) evaluate the relationships between fatty acid composition in fruit at different canopy positions and both the photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) and red-to-far red ratio (R/FR) measured at these same positions; and 2) determine the response functions of the fatty acid concentrations to PAR using multiple shading levels applied at different fruit growth phases. Fruit samples were taken from 60 canopy positions in a large olive hedgerow (cv. Arbequina) to achieve the first objective, and different shading levels (3, 20, 40, 70% PAR) were applied using shade cloth over the northern portion of large individual trees (cv. Arbequina) for the second objective. The oleic acid concentration (%) showed a significant exponential decay with increasing daily PAR values obtained from the different canopy positions. Maximum values of about 60% oleic acid were observed at low PAR and minimum values of 50% occurred at high PAR. Based on the artificial shading treatments, the high oleic acid at shaded canopy positions appeared to be related to less fruit maturation. The other main fatty acids did not differ by canopy position, and no significant relationships between individual fatty acids and R/FR ratio were found. However, severe artificial shading under shade cloth did increase stearic and linolenic acid concentrations. Despite oleic acid being about 10% higher in the more shaded parts of the canopy, cultivating olive trees at low PAR values in order to meet international olive oil trade standards would likely not be commercially feasible due to low flowering and yields. Careful cultivar selection, early harvesting when fruit are less mature and oleic acid is higher, and blending of oils from different cultivars are recommended to improve fatty acid composition in warm regions.

Analysis of financial and economic indicators, characterizing the activities of organizations in the oil and gas industry

Purpose of the study. The oil and gas industry occupies an important place in the Russian economy. The financial position of any organization is determined by its financial results, where profit is a key indicator in a market economy and an indicator of the success of the company. The aim of this work is to study the state and development of the oil and gas industry, analysis of the main financial indicators, characterizing the activities of a number of oil producing companies selected in the SPARK database using economic and statistical methods.Materials and methods. The research information base is statistical data and analytical information reflecting the financial component of the oil and gas industry. The research methodological base is represented by economic and statistical methods of information analysis.Results. The analysis of the main trends in the development of trade in the international oil trade is carried out, the key determinants of the modern world oil market are highlighted, the economic situation in the Russian oil industry is analyzed, which showed that there is a decrease in oil production associated with the OPEC + agreements; the share of exports of crude oil increases; the share of exports of refined oil decreases; the government is developing measures to reduce the dependence of budget revenues on the oil and gas industry.The main types of profit, such as gross profit, sales profit, before-tax profit, net profit are considered. It is worth noting that these categories of profit are interconnected, since one category follows from another, depending on the items of income and expense inherent in a particular type of profit. The analysis of a number of indicators, characterizing the financial activities of organizations of the oil and gas complex was carried out, the totality of oil producing organizations based on the SPARK database was selected, and a comparative analysis of the financial activities of two organizations of the oil and gas complex was carried out.Conclusion. The oil and gas industry is a key sector of the economy, making a significant contribution to the social and economic development of our country. Revenues from the activities of the oil and gas complex make a significant contribution to the country’s GDP and are a significant component of the budget.In this paper, an analysis of a number of financial and economic indicators, characterizing the activities of organizations of the oil and gas complex was carried out. The financial condition of the organization is largely determined by its financial results – profit or loss. The main indicators of the financial results of the organization are profit and profitability, which depend on many internal and external factors. Including, industry features have a great influence. A set of oil-producing organizations based on the SPARK database was selected in the work. By the example of organizations JSC “IDELOIL” and Ltd “NEDRA-K”, a comparative analysis of financial and economic indicators was carried out, directions for increasing gross profit and gross margin indicators were proposed and justified in order to reduce costs and increase revenues.As a result, it was concluded that the oil industry in Russia depends on political and economic factors, in this regard, it is necessary to regularly analyze the activities of organizations in this industry to identify miscalculations, low-active functioning systems, etc., with the purpose of more efficient functioning of the industry.

Complex network approach for the structural optimization of global crude oil trade system

Abstract It is essential to reveal the optimal structure of global crude oil supply and demand, which has become one of the most important factors affecting every country’s energy strategy and economic development. However, the existing crude oil supply and demand structure does not function well. This paper proposes a distributed bipartite network to model crude oil trade. The optimal network structure, which has the minimal total trade cost is obtained by Simulated Annealing Algorithm. The presented optimization model encompasses the framework of complex network theory and crude oil trading issues, providing a good solution for the crude oil trade system. Comparing with the pre-optimized trading network, the proposed model can effectively reduce trade cost. The Robustness Indicator is proposed to reveal that the major oil-exporting countries choose their partners more wisely and the trade relations are steadier. In the optimal distributed network, both the major oil-exporting countries and major oil-importing countries play important roles in distributing crude oil among the trading countries. Overall, the proposed model offers fresh insights for structural reconstruction of crude oil supply and demand network centered on the efficient usage of crude oil and keeping the international oil trade running smoothly.

Petro-RMB? The oil trade and the internationalization of the renminbi

Abstract In this article, we examine China's promotion of the renminbi (RMB) in international oil trade and explore its implications for the international currency system in the short and the long term. The article traces the rise of the RMB in international oil trade in recent years and provides an analysis of its impact on the internationalization of the Chinese currency. We argue that despite the increasing use of the yuan in oil trade in recent years, in the short term it is highly unlikely that a petro-RMB system will emerge to rival the petrodollar system. Unlike the petrodollar, which combines the qualities of a master currency, a top currency and a negotiated currency, China lacks the economic leadership and the political and geopolitical leverages to make the RMB a major petrocurrency. Although the emergence of the RMB-denominated Shanghai oil futures is an important development, the absence of highly developed financial markets and a strong legal system in China hinders its potential. In the long run, the RMB may take on a more prominent role in the international oil trade as China's weight as an oil importer rises. More importantly, the overuse of financial sanctions by the US government has begun to undermine the role of the dollar within and beyond the oil trade. In addition, the rise of alternative energy sources will diminish the centrality of oil in the world economy, thus reducing the significance of petrocurrencies—whether the dollar or the RMB—in shaping the international currency system.

Analysing the comparative advantages of the international oil trade: the case of Gulf Cooperation Council

Several studies have investigated the competitiveness with a focus placed on the Middle East, however, there are relatively few to pay attention specifically on the comparative advantages in oil trade. This paper utilizes the Balassa indices to shed light on the general tendencies and specific shifts in revealed comparative trade advantage of the Gulf Cooperation Council member states in main oil products between years 2000 and 2015. Based on our result, only four out of six GCC member states (Kuwait, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar) were found to possess an initial competitive status for at least one oil product. A tendency of generally diminishing comparative advantage in oil trade for the GCC group was revealed as a consequence of economic, financial, political reasons, including the aftermath of the financial crisis, regional instability, the Syrian conflict, fluctuating international oil prices.

Oil and gas trade between China and countries and regions along the ‘Belt and Road’: A panoramic perspective

A stable and secure oil supply is essential to achieve sustainable development in China. The country mostly imports oil and gas from countries along the ‘Belt and Road’, which are major destination countries for the export of Chinese-manufactured products. Strengthening trade with these countries is essential to not only secure China's oil and gas supply but also promote development in the area. Based on the global commodity chain and value chain concepts, this paper analyses the status and prospects of the oil and gas trade between countries, considering all trade relations, which avoids the one-sidedness of oil and gas trade analysis based on the demand–supply relationship. We find that the general trade relationship between China and the countries along the Belt and Road is closely related to their oil and gas trade. Oil and gas resources are the main commodities exported to China by countries and regions having close trade relationships with it. Chinese policies should thus focus on developing the oil and gas trade with central Asia and Mongolia and improving the country's competitive advantage in traditional manufacturing exports, which, in turn, can enhance its position in international oil and gas trade.

RETRACTED: On the conditional dependence structure between oil, gold and USD exchange rates: Nested copula based GJR-GARCH model

Energy commodities and precious metals differ from other trading products. Both oil and gold prices are leading economic variables, and drive the evolution of the world economy. Since the US dollar is used as the primary currency of international crude oil and gold trading, the relationship between commodities, metals and exchange rates has become a major research agenda recently. Therefore, this study proposes a Nested copula-based GJR-GARCH model to explore the dependence structure between oil, gold, and the USD exchange rate. More importantly, a comparative framework based on two sub-periods is implemented to capture the co-movement during normal and crisis periods. Empirical results suggest that for both crisis periods the dependence between oil, gold and the USD exchange rate is stronger compared with the dependence during the untroubled period. Moreover, the co-movement is accelerated which is explained by the unusual movement of the USD during the global financial crisis of 2007–2009.

Dependency network of international oil trade before and after oil price drop

An unexpected price drop beginning in 2014 has resulted in significant changes in the global crude oil market. This paper investigates the dependency network of the international oil trade and focuses on its changes after the oil price drop. Point-wise mutual information is used to quantify oil trade dependencies, and complex network methods are applied to analyze dependencies at both the country and world levels. The results show that the USA has constructed stable friendships with peripheral countries, and its dependency on traditional oil-producing areas in the Middle East and Africa has decreased significantly. The dependency between Russia and its major partners has undergone a U-curve; it decreased significantly from 2014 to the first half of 2016 and then recovered in late 2016 and 2017. India and its major import sources maintained a stable high dependency during the research period. Community analysis of the dependency network shows structural differences between 2014 and 2017. Large countries such as the USA and Russia changed their community after 2014. The results show that the global oil trade relationships changed considerably after 2014. The new features of dependency and its implications should be considered by policy makers and company managers.

On the study of conditional dependence structure between oil, gold and USD exchange rates

Energy commodities and precious metals differ from other trading products. In fact, both oil and gold prices are leading economic variables and drive the evolution of the world economy. Since the US dollar is used as the primary currency of international crude oil and gold trading, the relationship between commodities, metals and exchange rates became a major research agenda recently. Therefore, this study proposes a Nested copula based GARCH models to explore the dependence structure between oil, gold and USD exchange rate. More importantly, a comparative framework based on three sub-periods is implemented to capture the co-movement during normal and crisis period. Empirical results suggest that for both crisis period the dependence between oil, gold and USD exchange rate is stronger comparing with the dependence during the untroubled period. Moreover, the co-movement is accelerated which is explained by the unusual movement of USD during the global financial crisis of 2007–2009.

Corrupt at Its Core: How Law Failed the Victims of Waste Dumping in CCte DD Ivoire

On August 19, 2006, citizens of Cote d’ Ivoire woke to suffocating odors. Overnight, five-hundred tons of hazardous waste had been illegally dumped across the country’s largest city, Abidjan. Thousands were sickened. The incident stands as one of the most flagrant environmental crimes in recent memory. Now, more than a decade later, it is past time to examine the tragedy as an act of environmental corruption and to use the incident to draw lessons about the failures of global environmental governance. The relationship between the events in Abidjan and the international oil trade provide a particularly useful case study for exploring this issue because the Trafigura, the company involved in the incident, self-describes as being “at the heart of the global economy.” Taking the company at its word, the Abidjan dumping highlights a troubling lack of accountability at the heart of the global economy. It reveals how the system of laws that make up international trade law permit Northern trading partners to profit enormously from unlawful conduct in Southern States, while deploying formal legal structures as a shield against any responsibility for that conduct. Indeed, the incident reveals an implicit form of corruption embedded in a global trading system structured to allow plausible denials of involvement in illegal or corrupt transactions. This Article begins with an overview of how environmental corruption has typically been framed in scholarly discussions. Part 2 provides a description of the tragedy that occurred in Abidjan, situating it in the context of the public and private environmental governance and management choices that led up to it. Part 3 identifies the legal regimes that should have prevented this tragedy, and analyzes where those legal regimes fell short. This Part proposes that the contours of the global trading infrastructure in which such choices get made is itself corrupt — that drawing the boundaries of actors subject to environmental and human rights obligations to exclude transnational corporations (“TNCs”) is itself a kind of implicit corruption. Finally, this Article uses the robust literature on environmental corruption to demonstrate that this implicit form of corruption is built into the heart of the international commodities trade, and concludes by suggesting some ways forward.

WTI and Brent futures pricing structure

WTI and Brent crude oil futures are competing pricing benchmarks and they jockey for the number one position as the leading futures market. The price spread between WTI and Brent is also an important benchmark itself as the spread affects international trade in oil, refiner margins, and the price of refined products globally. In addition, the shapes of the WTI and Brent futures curves reflect supply and demand fundamentals in the U.S. versus the world market, respectively.On the analysis of the relationship between the two futures prices, we identify a structural break in the WTI–Brent price spread in January 2011 and a break in the corresponding shapes of the futures curves around the same time. The structural break was a consequence of a dramatic rise in U.S. production due to fracking, a series of supply disruptions in Europe, binding storage constraints, and the U.S. crude oil export ban. These events are studied in the context of a simulation model of world oil prices. We reproduce the stylized facts of the oil market and conclude that the 2011 break in pricing structure was consistent with standard commodity storage theory.

Catching Captain Jack: Efficient Time and Space Dependent Patrols to Combat Oil-Siphoning in International Waters

Pirate syndicates capturing tankers to siphon oil, causing an estimated cost of $5 billion a year, has become a serious security issue for maritime traffic. In response to the threat, coast guards and navies deploy patrol boats to protect international oil trade. However, given the vast area of the sea and the highly time and space dependent behaviors of both players, it remains a significant challenge to find efficient ways to deploy patrol resources. In this paper, we address the research challenges and provide four key contributions. First, we construct a Stackelberg model of the oil-siphoning problem based on incident reports of actual attacks; Second, we propose a compact formulation and a constraint generation algorithm, which tackle the exponentially growth of the defender’s and attacker’s strategy spaces, respectively, to compute efficient strategies of security agencies; Third, to further improve the scalability, we propose an abstraction method, which exploits the intrinsic similarity of defender’s strategy space, to solve extremely large-scale games; Finally, we evaluate our approaches through extensive simulations and a detailed case study with real ship traffic data. The results demonstrate that our approach achieves a dramatic improvement of scalability with modest influence on the solution quality and can scale up to realistic-sized problems.

The Responsibility of Coastal States Against the Ship Crash in International Strait (Malacca Strait)

Malacca Strait is globally recognized as a strait for international shipping as mentioned in UNCLOS 1982 and is under the sovereignty of three states; Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. Seeing the position of Malacca Strait that becomes the most crowded lane of international trade and oil, it often raises problems in navigation. In addition, many rocks, corals and strong waves may increase the potential of ship wrecking, sinking, and crashes. In regard to the safety issue of shipping lane in Malacca Strait, it becomes the responsibility of the coastal states and thus, they should organize an integrated safety management among them, particularly in Malacca Strait. They are Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. The safety assurance of shipping in Malacca Strait may increase the global economy as international oil trading and distribution is wellconducted, and finally it may increase the economy of the coastal states in Malacca Strait.

THE RESPONSIBILITY OF COASTAL STATES AGAINST THE SHIP CRASH IN INTERNATIONAL STRAIT (MALACCA STRAIT)

<p>Malacca Strait is globally recognized as a strait for international shipping as mentioned in UNCLOS 1982 and is under the sovereignty of three states; Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. Seeing the position of Malacca Strait that becomes the most crowded lane of international trade and oil, it often raises problems in navigation. In addition, many rocks, corals and strong waves may increase the potential of ship wrecking, sinking, and crashes. In regard to the safety issue of shipping lane in Malacca Strait, it becomes the responsibility of the coastal states and thus, they should organize an integrated safety management among them, particularly in Malacca Strait. They are Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. The safety assurance of shipping in Malacca Strait may increase the global economy as international oil trading and distribution is well-conducted, and finally it may increase the economy of the coastal states in Malacca Strait.</p>

Oil supply shocks and the U.S. economy: An estimated DSGE model

We develop and use a medium-sized DSGE model of the U.S. economy to evaluate how U.S. real GDP responds to oil price movements that originate from global oil supply shocks. The core of the model is a standard macroeconomic DSGE framework that includes nominal and real frictions. The model includes oil as an input in multiple domestic sectors (consumption, intermediate goods, and transportation services). We include a domestic oil production sector for the United States to reflect the recent development in shale oil technology. The model also captures international trade in goods and oil. The model parameters are set through a combination of calibration and Bayesian estimation using quarterly data for 1991 through 2015. Baseline estimation of the model finds the elasticity of U.S. real GDP with respect to an oil price shock of − 0.015, which is among the less elastic estimates in the literature. Using the model to conduct counterfactual analysis, we find that decreasing steady state U.S. oil consumption substantially reduces the response of real GDP to oil prices. Increasing U.S. domestic oil production only modestly reduces the response of real GDP to oil prices.

Oil, Gas and Energy Business under One Belt One Road Strategic Context

One Belt One Road (OBOR) Initiative of China is a mega and historical project which facilitates international oil, gas and energy trade and connects people over the world. This article examines the oil, gas, and energy business status under OBOR. It also explores the risk associated with oil, gas and energy business under OBOR initiative of China. The article used secondary sources extensively. The article reveals that China is the top-level energy importing country and the strategy of OBOR is favorable for oil, gas and energy business for all partner countries of OBOR. It also explores the potential risk for oil, gas and energy business under OBOR like political risk, economic risk, investment environment, resource potential, environmental constraints and Chinese factors which can be minimized by using two risk free economic corridors viz. China-Pakistan Corridor (CPEC) and Myanmar-China oil pipeline. The article suggests that a strong initiative should be taken by the government to implement OBOR strategy for creating favorable investment opportunities in China especially for Middle Eastern countries like Saudi Arabia, Russia, Kazakhstan, and Pakistan.

Driving force and resistance: Network feature in oil trade

This article examines the international crude oil trade and the international petroleum trade through econometric analysis and complex network analysis, focusing on the aspects of the driving forces and resistances for the oil trade and competitive or cooperative relationships among countries. The crude oil trade network and the petroleum trade network are constructed. Positional and role analysis reveals that countries can be divided into five positions in the crude oil trade network and twenty-five positions in the petroleum trade network. The relationships among countries within or between positions are discussed and recognized as competitive or cooperative. The bilateral oil trade analysis shows that various factors within countries have influence on bilateral trade volume. The analysis also implies that restrictions on trade partner selection due to geographical resistance forces neighboring oil-importing countries to choose similar oil-exporting countries, which corresponds with the results of the complex network analysis. The complex network analysis shows that the countries in the same position belong to the same region. Furthermore, the analysis results imply that the diversification in petroleum-exporting countries reduces the supply disruption risk for importing countries.

Olive oil authentication: A comparative analysis of regulatory frameworks with especial emphasis on quality and authenticity indices, and recent analytical techniques developed for their assessment. A review

ABSTRACTOver the last decades, olive oil quality and authenticity control has become an issue of great importance to consumers, suppliers, retailers, and regulators in both traditional and emerging olive oil producing countries, mainly due to the increasing worldwide popularity and the trade globalization of this product. Thus, in order to ensure olive oil authentication, various national and international laws and regulations have been adopted, although some of them are actually causing an enormous debate about the risk that they can represent for the harmonization of international olive oil trade standards. Within this context, this review was designed to provide a critical overview and comparative analysis of selected regulatory frameworks for olive oil authentication, with special emphasis on the quality and purity criteria considered by these regulation systems, their thresholds and the analytical methods employed for monitoring them. To complete the general overview, recent analytical advances to overcome drawbacks and limitations of the official methods to evaluate olive oil quality and to determine possible adulterations were reviewed. Furthermore, the latest trends on analytical approaches to assess the olive oil geographical and varietal origin traceability were also examined.

Oil Price Systemic Risk for the Oil and Gas Industry: A Copula-CoVaR Approach

This paper contributes to the literature on the relationship between crude oil prices and financial markets. Copula models are used in order to investigate the time-varying and asymmetric dependence structure between oil prices and stock prices of oil and gas companies. In addition, the concept of conditional value- at-risk (CoVaR) is used in order to quantify the oil price systemic risk for the oil and gas sector companies in different countries. The approaches applied in this paper are very flexible and allow one to capture dynamic, non-linear, in particular asymmetric, relationships. This seems reasonable as oil price behaviour as such, the underlying causes for price movements as well as the way financial markets react to oil price movements changes over time. A newly proposed marginal model is found to outperform traditional approaches. In addition, there is evidence of time-varying and asymmetric dependence structures. Finally, both upside and downside oil price risk are found to be significant. Thus, our results show the different impacts of oil prices on the stock prices of oil and gas companies in different countries which allows investors of oil and gas industry to construct global diversified portfolios to hedge the oil price systemic risk optimally. In addition, governments in different countries can make policy decisions for adjusting their international oil trade strategy to optimize the revenues of domestic oil and gas companies in order to optimising tax revenues.

The stability of the international oil trade network from short-term and long-term perspectives

To examine the stability of the international oil trade network and explore the influence of countries and trade relationships on the trade stability, we construct weighted and unweighted international oil trade networks based on complex network theory using oil trading data between countries from 1996 to 2014. We analyze the stability of international oil trade network (IOTN) from short-term and long-term aspects. From the short-term perspective, we find that the trade volumes play an important role on the stability. Moreover, the weighted IOTN is stable; however, the unweighted networks can better reflect the actual evolution of IOTN. From the long-term perspective, we identify trade relationships that are maintained during the whole sample period to reveal the situation of the whole international oil trade. We provide a way to quantitatively measure the stability of complex network from short-term and long-term perspectives, which can be applied to measure and analyze trade stability of other goods or services.