Oil and the global economy / Abdlatif Al-Hamad, Philip Verleger, Jr.

Abbreviations, iv -- Introduction, 1 -- The challenges ahead for the oil producer and consumer countries in the middle east and North Africa Region, 3 -- -- Oil: an ossified industry, 27 -- Group of thirty members 2016, 45 -- Group of thirty publications, 51.

This publication discusses the oil industry with contributions from two perspectives. Al-Hamad discusses the many challenges facing the oil industry in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), arguing that the current price cycle has highlighted the dependency of oil-exporting nations on the commodity as they now struggle to balance their budgets to fund social spending and transfers. On the oil industry as a whole, Verleger argues that the major oil firms are economically ossified. He discusses three forces that he believes “threaten to permanently transform the oil industry” and argues that “technical change, shifts in consumer preferences, and innovation” will change the business models, strategies, and long-term prospects of the oil industry.