Showdown with Iran: Implications for Global Oil

October 22, 2019
1200—1300

Dr. Brenda Shaffer

Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Global Energy Center in Washington, D.C., and a visiting researcher and professor at Georgetown University

Abstract

Iran’s  attack on the Abqaiq oil processing complex in Saudi Arabia in September was part of  Tehran’s larger strategy aimed to raise the global oil price and thus force sanctions removal. This lecture will discuss Iran’s strategy targeting  major oil production and transportation sites, anticipated developments and the implications for the global oil market. It will also discuss the lessons learned about the state of the global oil market from the response to the Abqaiq attacks. In addition, the lecture will look at how instability in the Persian Gulf region can impact global LNG trade. The lecture will also examine domestic developments in Iran and how they will impact its future foreign policy moves, as well as Iran’s oil production trajectory.

Biography

Dr. Brenda Shaffer is a foreign policy and international energy specialist, focusing on global energy trends and policies, European energy security, Azerbaijan, politics  and  energy in the South Caucasus and greater Caspian and Black Sea regions, Iranian natural gas exports, ethnic politics in Iran, and Eastern Mediterranean energy. She is a Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Global Energy Center in Washington, D.C., and a visiting researcher and professor at Georgetown University.

Dr. Shaffer is the author of several books: Energy Politics (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009), Borders and Brethren: Iran and the Challenge of Azerbaijani Identity (MIT Press, 2002) and Partners in Need: The Strategic Relationship of Russia and Iran (Washington Institute for Near East Policy, 2001). Energy Politics is used as a text book in over 200 university courses around the globe. She has also served as the editor for Beyond the Resource Curse (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012) and Limits of Culture: Islam and Foreign Policy (MIT Press, 2006).

Dr. Shaffer frequently provides research and expert counsel to international institutions, governments, energy companies, and regional security organizations.  She has given testimony to several committees of the U.S. Congress, including the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and to the European Parliament. She frequently appears on Bloomberg TV and in major news outlets worldwide to provide insight on developments in the global oil market. She previously served as the Research Director for the Caspian Studies Program at Harvard University.

POC

Dr. Daniel A. Nussbaum
Naval Postgraduate School 
Chair, Energy Academic Group
Monterey CA 93943
Phone: 831-656-2387
Mobile: 831-324-3228
Email: dnussbaum@nps.edu