Privatization and Deregulation in the Gulf Energy Sector

Book excerpt: The papers contained in this volume were among those presented at ECSSR's Third Annual Energy Conference, entitled "Privatization and Deregulation in the Gulf Energy Sector," held in Abu Dhabi, October 25-26, 1997. This conference united leading practitioners and scholars in an effort to explore the important micro and macro issues related to the privatization and deregulation of energy sector. Topics related to oil production and refining, gas and electricity production, and their transmission and distribution were discussed. This volume assesses the arguments for and against deregulation of the energy sector and highlights the political, legal, institutional, and resource requirements for successful implementation of a privatization program, drawing on international experience. Indeed, privatization is spreading globally after its small and uncertain beginnings in Britain in the early 1980s. Today, states of the Gulf Co-Operation Council (GCC) are actively examining the possibility of privatizing a number of key industries and infrastructure projects. The ideal route to prosperous and effective privatization programs is for the GCC states to learn from the mistakes of other countries in this field, while emulating the success stories.