Suchergebnisse

This paper relates changes in Arab financial structures to financing patterns in oil and gas. Until the mid-1990s, inherited financial structures displayed a reliance on external official finance. Since then, governments, who are the main borrowers, have shifted to domestic and private sources of finance, reflecting two broad changes. The first, is a global context where bilateral loans have largely dried up and private finance is more important, though not more reliable. In the medium term, capital flows to developing countries are expected to remain low and volatile, indicating difficulties in credit supplies. Secondly, the region has witnessed a resizing of the role of Arab states, and programmes to deepen and reform financial sectors. Arab oil and gas sectors have changed in a similar direction. In-house finance and export credits remain important for their investment needs, linking the sector to government balances and external debt. Recently, improved and expanded financial structures have facilitated the use of more diverse financing strategies. Domestically, the sector can now tap local savings through voluntary debt instruments and stock markets. This underpinning, though quantitatively small, may be a stabilising force: local investors react less severely to rising uncertainties. Externally, the implicit guarantee offered by hydrocarbon receivables, which had been a key to accessing foreign finance, is now helping the sectors to mobilise new instruments. On the other hand, the use of private sources of fresh finance has re-introduced sensitivity to political and country risk, and added weight to the importance of regulatory and institutional frameworks. Arab oil and gas are therefore more dependent than ever on 'balanced' development, i.e. on improvements in all sectors. If financing availability to oil and gas improved in response to financial deepening, it is likely to respond positively to overall development. The current upsurge in oil revenues is an ideal opportunity to finance this development, ...

In just 15 years, Egypt moved from a dependency on oil to using gas for meeting almost half of its energy needs. This paper follows the development of this domestic gas market. It finds that demand creation was linked to upward revisions in reserve availability, but was also driven by domestic concerns about pollution and international finance which supported conversion to gas. Today, gas penetration in power generation is almost complete, and is substantive in heavy and large industries. Despite tripling over the last 10 years, the number of households connected to the gas grid is still only at 18% of households. Private distribution companies, established as part of on-going macro-economic reforms, have been key to delivering this success. Lastly, Egypt is now the world's eighth largest CNG user, with 50 stations currently operational. The development of this market was effectively financed by sustained and substantial public investments. Related costs have still not been fully amortised, featuring as outstanding debts to the public bodies involved. While these investments have given Egypt a relatively developed gas chain from well head to delivery point, this chain is at best an emerging market. Prices are still centrally controlled, fuel delivery is still a bundled service, and private participation remains limited to a few private distribution companies. Establishing the regulatory and legislative bases of the natural gas market, including a regulator, is very much work in progress.

This study considers the experiences of Egypt, Oman, and Syria in managing their oil and gas sectors. All three countries depend on the technological and financial leadership of international oil companies to deliver output, and displayed openness and flexibility to retain them. Sectoral policies were often amplified by macro-economic policies. In Oman and Egypt, financial and fiscal reforms allowed governments to reduce their vulnerability to oil revenue volatility. Their sectors can rely on a more diversified composition of financial flows. Both are mobilising more local resources and human capital. Syrian output rose successfully without recourse to commercial bank lending, but its government remains vulnerably dependent on oil revenues. Its poor record on technical progress and on financial development constrained both sectoral development and economic growth. All three countries continue to experience sectoral imbalances, particularly in the downstream. Although general, these conclusions reveal a need for focusing on qualitative aspects of oil dependency. Perhaps oil and gas represent an evolving range of opportunities and problems rather than a blessing or a curse.

This study examines inter-linkages between the financing and development of Arab power sectors. These sectors are now operating in a difficult global financial market characterised by investors' retrenchment and risk aversion. This market has also moved away from the notion of a struggle between private and public finance, towards a strategy that emphasises the co-ordination of public, private, and multilateral players, to ensure successful delivery of services. Consequently, the current modus operandi in funding power projects worldwide is 'hybrid forms of co-operation'. Recently, Arab power sectors have witnessed the entry of private sponsors and financiers, both domestic and foreign, as a result of two policy responses. Firstly, power sector regulations were adjusted to allow private operators to participate in power generation. Secondly, the reform and development of Arab financial sectors allowed an expansion of participation by Arab banks, the use of new instruments, and the entry of new players. Though the change is not overwhelming quantitatively, it allowed private power to make a palpable contribution to the expansion of power generation capacity. Arab power infrastructure will also benefit from a number of intra-regional power pools and grid inter-connection projects, whose financing has been led by multilateral regional funds. Thus, there is a case for pursuing policies that build on the region's strength and match the current emphasis on resource pooling, namely: strengthening regional co-operation; maintaining flexibility about the range of sponsors allowed to operate; furthering financial development. Conversely, power sector financing should shift away from an emphasis on supply shortages, towards managing demand and addressing operational and qualitative deficiencies. Similarly, sectoral reforms should be comprehensive enough to deal with underlying social and political dimensions. Given the embryonic state of regional reforms and of international experiences, financial problems will neither be ...