Crude oil extraction in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria generates 96% of all foreign earnings and 85% of state revenues, making it crucial to the survival of the Nigerian state. Several generations of state neglect, corruption and mismanagement have ensured that the Delta region is one of the most socio-economically and politically deprived in the country. By the late 1990s there was a frightening proliferation of armed gangs and insurgent groups. Illegal oil bunkering, pipeline vandalism, disruption of oil production activities, riots, and demonstrations intensified and in 2003, insurgents began kidnapping oil workers at a frenetic pace. In late 2005, an uber-insurgent movement 'organization' was formed in Nigeria. Christened the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), it operates as an amorphous, multifaceted amalgam of insurgent groups with an unprecedented clinical precision in execution of intents. By focussing on kidnappings that are putatively connected to the struggle for emancipating the Niger Delta, Oriola makes the case for analysing MEND as a social movement organization, rather than a terrorist or criminal gang by showing how political processes shape kidnappings in the Delta. The use of violent repertoires of contention has not garnered sufficient attention in the social movement literature, despite the fact that that around the world, many similar groups are adopting violent tactics without necessarily eschewing non-violent techniques. Based on multi-actor research, including interviews and focus group discussions with community members, military authorities, 42 ex-insurgents directly involved in illegal oil bunkering and kidnapping, and official email statements from 'Jomo Gbomo', the spokesperson of MEND, this book will be of interest to sociologists, political scientists and peace and security studies scholars.

This book sheds light on how the modern 3-bladed wind turbine came into being, and who, how and what in the proceeding period caused the success. It looks back over three decades to find the roots of this exciting development, a long cavalcade of developers, inventors, and manufacturers including the Danish authors who themselves were part of the breakthrough. Written for non-specialists, the book covers minimal science, emphasizing the story of how wind power became a worldwide 30-billion-euro business employing nearly one million people.

Oil, an integral part of the contemporary global economy, is considered a driving force behind the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Hydrocarbon reserves in Iraq have a significant role to play in global supply, with oil revenue accounting for more than 90% of Iraqi government income. This book provides a comprehensive insight into the key foundations of Iraq's oil industry and assists in the development of a core area of domestic law to promote economic recovery following years of instability. It addresses the development of oil legislation and the formation of contracts since the US and allied occupation of Iraq in 2003. Legislation is assessed against the framework of the constitution along with the different types of oil agreements and their terms. The book looks at three main aspects of oil legislation, beginning with the validity and interpretation of the constitution as any subsequent legislation governing oil policy will be based upon this. The work then discusses whether the draft oil and gas law of 2007 and any subsequent oil legislation, including the law implemented by the Kurdish Regional Government in 2007, is valid. Finally, the book analyses the legitimacy of oil agreements entered into by the central and regional governments and whether these contain terms beneficial to the state and contracting party. Providing an in-depth analysis of the origins and development of the legal framework of the oil industry in Iraq, the book acts as both a reference source and a springboard for future research across a range of legal, economic and policy perspectives. It will appeal to practitioners and academics working in energy law and international investment law, as well as policy-makers, legal advisors and those working in governments and energy companies.

Flooding is one of the most frequently occurring and damaging natural disasters worldwide. Quantitative flood risk management (FRM) in the modern context demands statistically robust approaches (e.g. probabilistic) due to the need to deal with complex uncertainties. However, probabilistic estimates often involve ensemble 2D model runs resulting in large computational costs.Additionally, modern FRM necessitates the involvement of a broad range of stakeholders via co-design sessions. This makes it necessary for the flood models, at least at a simplified level, to be understood by and accessible to non-specialists. This study was undertaken to develop a flood modelling system that can provide rapid and sufficiently accurate estimates of flood risk within a methodology that is accessible to a wider range of stakeholders for a coastal city - Can Tho city, Mekong Delta, Vietnam. A web-based hydraulic tool, Inform, was developed based on a simplified 1D model for the entire Mekong Delta, flood hazard and damage maps, and estimated flood damages for the urban centre of Can Tho city (Ninh Kieu district), containing the must-have features of a co-design tool (e.g. inbuilt input library, flexible options, easy to use, quick results, user-friendly interface). Inform provides rapid flood risk assessments with quantitative information (e.g. flood levels, flood hazard and damage maps, estimated damages) required for co-designing efforts aimed at flood risk reduction for Ninh Kieu district in the future.

Good management of water resources - universally identified as a key aspect of poverty reduction, agriculture and food security - has proven, in practice, as difficult to achieve as it is eagerly sought. This book, edited and authored by leading authorities on water resource management, examines the recent changes in governance, institutions, economics and policies of water, covering developing, transitional and developed countries, with special emphasis on southern African case studies. The book examines how water policies, institutions and governance have shifted in recent years from supply-driven, quantitative, centrally controlled management to more demand-sensitive, decentralized, participatory approaches. Such a move often also implies cost recovery principles, resource allocation among competing sectors, and privatization. The case studies demonstrate that the new policies and legal frameworks have been difficult to implement and often fall short of initial expectations. Using an accessible multidisciplinary approach that integrates economics, sociology, geography and policy analysis, the book untangles the issues and presents best practices for policy- and decision-makers, governments and regulators, NGOs and user groups, service providers, and researchers. The overall aim is to show how good water governance structures can be developed and implemented for the benefit of all.

Stern Magazine, the Black Scorpion: "we will aim at everything - even if it is not moving" Surrey Life magazine: "George S Boughton was an oil engineer in Nigeria during the 1967 to 1970 Biafran War and what emerges from this intense, emotional memoir is a withering indictment of governing elites and the destructive consequences of their out-of-control behaviour. Around a million people starved to death or were killed in the fighting; yet the news vacuum meant that Boughton and other expat workers were often in the dark about the true extent of what was going on. Black Gold Black Scorpion is a fascinating, first-hand account of how a nation at war with itself became a magnet for cold war politics as it sank into moral darkness". Recounted are the lives of a young oil engineer, his wife and newborn child, during the War, when they inadvertently lived through one of the worst episodes of African history. Working in an industry that has gone on to pollute massively with oil, theirs is a different story of Africa, oil and aid. The author describes the political elites and those, like Ojukwu and Adekunle, who fought them - having himself been captured and detained, one to one, by the mythically ruthless Black Scorpion; this, the strangest of events, enabling him to observe at close range the disintegration of a powerful personality. More especially, the author's and his family's interaction with the people of the area, the people of Igboland, serves to underline how most of Africa continues to be let down by the pillars of the modern world - political elites, capitalists, the media and warring world powers.

This volume examines energy security in a privatized, liberalized, and increasingly global energy market, in which the concept of sustainability has developed together with a higher awareness of environmental issues, but where the potential for supply disruptions, price fluctuation, and threats to infrastructure safety must also be considered. Part I commences with an essential introductory chapter which defines energy security and sets forth the key issues and themes of the book. There then follow several cross-cutting chapters which include sceptical analysis of energy security claims from an environmental perspective and a broader geopolitical analysis of energy security. Part II examines a wide variety of international, regional, and national approaches to energy security issues. Energy security concerns differ considerably from country to country, however most of the chapters examining particular nations provide an economic and historical context of their energy security concerns, followed by a detailed analysis of the legal provisions relating to each of the main energy sectors (oil, gas, coal, electricity, nuclear, and renewable energies). This entails examination of regulation, organization, and planning for security and other purposes. In a number of cases, energy security law is shaped by other factors such as market liberalization, environmental protection, and competition policy. Part III comprises two final chapters, the first contrasting the various national and regional approaches and analysing cross-cutting issues, whilst the concluding chapter forecasts future trends in the legal regulation of energy security.

This book addresses key questions on biofuels within agrarian political economy, political sociology and political ecology. Contributions are based on fresh empirical materials from different parts of the world. The book starts with four key questions in agrarian political economy: Who owns what? Who does what? Who gets what? And what do they do with the surplus wealth? It also addresses the emergent social and political relations in the biofuel complex and, given the impacts on natural resources and sustainability, engages with questions about people-environment interactions. At the same time, the book is concerned with the politics of representation, that is, what are the discursive frames through which biofuels are promoted and/or opposed? The book analyses the institutional structures, and cultures of energy consumption on which a biofuels complex depends, and the alternative political and ecological visions emerging that call the biofuels complex into question. Across sixteen chapters presenting material from five regions across the North-South divide and focusing on fourteen countries including Brazil, Indonesia, India, USA and Germany, these topics are addressed within the following themes: global (re)configurations; agro-ecological visions; conflicts, resistances and diverse outcomes; state, capital and society relations; mobilising opposition, creating alternatives; and change and continuity. This book was published as a special issue of the Journal of Peasant Studies.

On March 11,2011, Japan experienced the largest earthquake in its history, causing massive property damage. This book summarizes and critically analyzes the natural events and human shortcomings responsible for the failure of the Fukushima reactors during the first year following the accident, and governmental and civilian responses to the emergency. It covers the plant's safety history, the tsunami and earthquake, and the implications of the events on the nuclear reactor industry.

China's rapid economic growth has led to a huge increase in its domestic energy needs. This book provides a critical overview of how China's growing need for oil imports is shaping its international economic and diplomatic strategy and how this affects global political relations and behaviour. Part One is focused on the domestic drivers of energy policy: it provides a systematic account of recent trends in China's energy sector and assesses the context and processes of energy policy making, and concludes by showing how and why China's oil industry has spread across the world in the last fifteen years. Part Two analyses the political and foreign policy implications of this energy-driven expansion and the challenges this potentially poses for China's integration into the international system. It examines a number of factors linked to this integration in the energy field, including the unpredictabilities of internal policymaking; China's determination to promote its own critical national interests, and the general ambition of the Chinese leadership to integrate with the international system on its own terms and at its own speed. The highly topical book draws together the various dimensions of China's international energy strategy, and provides insights into the impact of this on China's growing international presence in various parts of the world.

Since the late 1980s, when the current tide of environmental concern began to rise, every improvement made by the oil industry has been followed by new demands for further progress. New problems have been placed on top of the old ones; first smog in the inner cities and oil spills on the beaches, then acid rain and forest die back followed by major tank disasters and renewed attention to urban air quality and finally, climatic change. The purpose of this book is to investigate whether the oil industry is able to extend and renew its social legitimacy as it faces its toughest agenda in a century — the challenges stemming from its impact on the environment and the consequent public questioning of its role in society. To find out whether and how the oil industry has responded to environmental issues in general and climatic change in particular, five indicators of change — vision & image, R&D, investments, and government relations — have been selected. These have been assumed to be expressions of an environmental strategy which can be identified as reactive, cautious or creative. The empirical analysis begins with case studies of the environmental response of five major oil companies: Shell, Exxon, BP, Amoco and Statoil. The next step is a case study of the refinery sector, which is the most environmentally sensitive part of the industry in many ways. In addition, a brief description of how three industry associations have tackled the same environmental issues is included. The main readership for this book will be policy makers, planners and researchers in the oil industry, and environmental consultants.

An increase in major natural disasters-and the growing number of damaging events involving gas, electric, water, and other utilities-has led to heightened concerns about utility operations and public safety. Due to today's complex, compliance-based environment, utility managers and planners often find it difficult to plan for the action needed to help ensure organization-wide resilience and meet consumer expectations during these incidents. Emergency Planning Guide for Utilities, Second Edition offers a working guide that presents new and field-tested approaches to plan development, training, exercising, and emergency program management. The book will help utility planners, trainers, and responders-as well as their vendors and suppliers-to more effectively prepare for damaging events and improve the level of the utility's resilience. It also focuses on planning needed in the National Incident Management System and ICS environment that many utilities are embracing going forward. In doing so, utilities will be able to improve the customer experience while reducing the impact that damaging events have on the utility's infrastructure, people, and resources.

Since the 1990s, Baltic-Russian relations have been amongst the most contentious on the European continent. Energy security concerns, historical legacies, and the status of Russian minorities have all proved key flash points. Baltic-Russian relations have been described as a 'litmus test' of Russia's willingness to leave behind its imperialist ambitions; simultaneously the policies of Tallinn, Riga or Vilnius towards Russia can have a direct impact on EU-Russian and NATO-Russian relations. The Baltic states share similar histories and resources, and face the same geopolitical challenges. All are dependent on Russia for energy yet, as this fascinating study reveals, they have pursued very different foreign policies towards their powerful neighbour. In The Politics of Energy and Memory between the Baltic States and Russia Agnia Grigas provides an unprecedented analysis of contemporary Baltic-Russian relations and identifies the causal factors that drive the foreign policies of the Baltic states in such divergent routes. Supported by case studies on the oil and gas sectors as well as the tug of history, this book is an invaluable resource for scholars and policy makers.

Oil Spaces traces petroleum's impact through a range of territories from across the world, showing how industrially drilled petroleum and its refined products have played a major role in transforming the built environment in ways that are often not visible or recognized. Over the past century and a half, industrially drilled petroleum has powered factories, built cities, and sustained nation-states. It has fueled ways of life and visions of progress, modernity, and disaster. In detailed international case studies, the contributors consider petroleum's role in the built environment and the imagination. They study how petroleum and its infrastructure have served as a source of military conflict and political and economic power, inspiring efforts to create territories and reshape geographies and national boundaries. The authors trace ruptures and continuities between colonial and postcolonial frameworks, in locations as diverse as Sumatra, northeast China, Brazil, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Kuwait as well as heritage sites including former power stations in Italy and the port of Dunkirk, once a prime gateway through which petroleum entered Europe. By revealing petroleum's role in organizing and imagining space globally, this book takes up a key task in imagining the possibilities of a post-oil future. It will be invaluable reading to scholars and students of architectural and urban history, planning, and geography of sustainable urban environments.

Sustainable Transport Fuels Business Briefing explains, for a global business audience, the latest developments in the world of sustainable transport. Not the vehicles or modes of transport themselves, but their means of propulsion. New technologies and players are coming and going with bewildering speed. Some observers are putting their money on electric vehicles, others on hybrids; some see electric vehicles as a mere stepping stone to hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicles, already being seen on city streets. The mere mention of biofuels often provokes fierce arguments about their sustainability, yet they, too, are here to stay and will be filling more and more fuel tanks. By the time you finish this book, you will understand not only the pros and cons of all these technologies, the programs around the world furthering their development, and the players large and small, but also the catalysts for change, and the successful partnerships and innovative business models being employed. You'll be able to make informed decisions about investments, whether you're considering a new fleet, haulage or mobility of any kind, or whether to install an electric vehicle charging point in your property.

Nuclear power is often characterized as a "green technology." Technologies are rarely, if ever, socially isolated artefacts. Instead, they materially represent an embodiment of values and priorities. Nuclear power is no different. It is a product of a particular political economy and the question is whether that political economy can helpfully engage with the challenge of addressing the environmental crisis on a finite, inequitable and shared planet. For developing countries like India, who are presently making infrastructure investments which will have long legacies, it is imperative that these investments wrestle with such questions and prove themselves capable of sufficiency, greater equality and inclusiveness. This book offers a critique of civilian nuclear power as a green energy strategy for India and develops and proposes an alternative "synergy for sustainability." It situates nuclear power as a socio-technical infrastructure embodying a particular development discourse and practice of energy and economic development. The book reveals the political economy of this arrangement and examines the latter's ability to respond to the environmental crisis. Manu V. Mathai argues that the existing overwhelmingly growth-focused, highly technology-centric approach for organizing economic activity is unsustainable and needs to be reformed. Within this imperative for change, nuclear power in India is found to be and is characterized as an "authoritarian technology." Based on this political economy critique the book proposes an alternative, a synergy of ideas from the fields of development economics, energy planning and science, technology and society studies.

The book sheds understanding on the relations between development and global energy security by looking at China and India. It addresses the following issues: what is the new definition of energy security? How does it affect global politics and international relations? What are the energy security concerns of China and India, and what policies and approaches have they taken to deal with energy security issues? Since China and India are searching for oil and gas in the Middle East, Africa, and Southeast Asia, would their acquisition efforts conflict with the interests of other energy giants such as the U.S., Japan, and would their growing overseas activities challenge U.S. policy in those energy-rich regions? The book provides insight into what the new global energy order may be and how the growth models and energy structures may shape the economic growth and energy. It analyzes both the state-centered approach and market-oriented approach in the global quest for energy resources. It also examines how China and India can adopt a cooperative approach for beneficial relations. The book will be of interest to anyone who is keen to learn how the World especially U.S.A. can accomodate and adapt to the new global energy dynamics and on China and India as new players in global energy markets.

The global crude oil market is critically important in many respects. It is the fuel that drives the global economy and, as such, is the focus of climate policies. Moreover, crude oil is the basis of a tradable financial asset. It is therefore connected to several outstanding macroeconomic developments of recent years, including financial market fluctuations, the financial crisis and the exceptional conduct of monetary policy. This book investigates the impacts of monetary policy and the financial system on the global crude oil market. Furthermore, it outlines how monetary policy may also be used to guarantee stability and to contribute to ecological sustainability. This unique and innovative book will appeal to students and economists interested in macroeconomics, the environment, energy and monetary policy. It will also be essential reading for policy makers and those interested in economic policy that will benefit both society and the environment.

Renewable and carbon-neutral energy have been promoted as the future of energy production in the United States. Non-traditional energy sources show promise as alternatives to fossil fuels and may provide a sustainable source of energy in increasingly uncertain energy markets. However, these new sources of energy face their own set of political, administrative, and legal challenges. Green vs. Green explores how mixed land ownership and existing law and regulation present serious challenges to the development of alternative energy sources in the United States. Analytically examining and comparing five green energy sectors; wind, solar, geothermal, biofuel and hydro power, Ryan M. Yonk, Randy T. Simmons, and Brian C. Steed argue that discussing alternative energy without understanding these pitfalls creates unrealistic expectations regarding the ability to substitute "green" energy for traditional sources. The micro-goals of protecting individual areas, species, small-scale ecosystems, and other local environmental aims often limits ability to achieve macro-goals like preventing global climate change or transitioning to large-scale green energy production. Statutes and regulations designed to protect environmental and cultural integrity from degradation directly conflict with other stated environmental ends. Although there is substantial interest in adding clean energy to the grid, it appears that localized environmental interests interfere with broader environmental policy goals and the application of existing environmental laws and regulations may push us closer to gridlock. Green vs. Green provides a fascinating look into how existing environmental law created or will create substantial regulatory hurdles for future energy generations.

Based on extensive original research, Globalisation, Transition and Development inChina explains China's development strategy and its underlying forces, and the success of this strategy. It examines China's gradualist approach which emphasizes development first and regards transition and globalization as secondary, enacting liberalization of domestic markets and integration into the world economy in a paced way, avoiding dramatic changes which might impede or even reverse development, and argues that this approach is broadly correct. It considers China's failures, including the failure to build large globally competitive corporations despite the intention to do this, and shows how China's economic strategy has been implemented in detail with a case study of the large and important coal industry.

Within the nuclear field, a vast body of knowledge, involving scientific, technical and managerial fields, is distributed among many organizations of different types. Managing and provisioning distributed knowledge is therefore becoming one of the major challenges in federated organizational environments. This publication provides information to organizations dealing with nuclear knowledge and its management. It covers an introduction to semantic information technologies, the Worldwide Web standards developed for interoperability, the construction of knowledge bases on the basis of distributed knowledge, and the development of knowledge driven applications. In addition to providing insight into the development of distributed knowledge bases, the intent of this publication is to provide examples of applications of semantic technologies specifically in the nuclear field.

A comprehensive overview of trading and risk management in the energy markets "Energy Trading and Risk Management "provides a comprehensive overview of global energy markets from one of the foremost authorities on energy derivatives and quantitative finance. With an approachable writing style, Iris Mack breaks down the three primary applications for energy derivatives markets - Risk Management, Speculation, and Investment Portfolio Diversification - in a way that hedge fund traders, consultants, and energy market participants can apply in their day to day trading activities. Moving from the fundamentals of energy markets through simple and complex derivatives trading, hedging strategies, and industry-specific case studies, Dr. Mack walks readers through energy trading and risk management concepts at an instructive pace, supporting her explanations with real-world examples, illustrations, charts, and precise definitions of important and often-misunderstood terms.From stochastic pricing models for exotic derivatives, to modern portfolio theory (MPT), energy portfolio management (EPM), to case studies dealing specifically with risk management challenges unique to wind and hydro-electric power, the bookguides readers through the complex world of energy trading and risk management to help investors, executives, and energy professionals ensure profitability and optimal risk mitigation in every market climate."Energy Trading and Risk Management" is a great resource to help grapple with the very interesting but oftentimes complex issues that arise in energy trading and risk management.

According to recent estimates, around 6,000 people - mostly children under five - die every day from diseases caused by inappropriate water and sanitation (WS) services. Much of the academic and political debate surrounding this issue has focused on private sector participation. By shifting the attention towards the influence of governance, Krause examines the political and sectoral institutions that are essential for the provision of WS services. Utilizing data from sixty-nine developing countries, Matthias Krause demonstrates that the level of democracy has a statistically significant positive impact on access to WS services and that low-quality governance of sub-national governments compromises the internal efficiency of providers and the widespread access to services. This book makes a critical contribution to the water and sanitation research and will help academics and policy-makers to rethink the way in which they deal with water issues.

A timely contribution and incisive analysis, this is the story of the British experiment in privatizing the nuclear power industry and its subsequent financial collapse. It tells how the UK's pioneering role in nuclear power led to bad technology choices, a badly flawed restructuring of the electricity industry and the end of government support for nuclear power. In this volume Simon Taylor has combined interviews with former executives, regulators and analysts with his own unique insight into the nuclear industry to provide an analysis of the origins of the crisis and the financial and corporate strategies used by British Energy plc. Arguing that the stock market was a major factor in the company's collapse by misunderstanding its finances, over-valuing the shares and giving wrong signals to management and that the government policy of trying to put all responsibility for nuclear liabilities in the hands of the private sector was neither credible nor realistic. The book concludes that failure was not inevitable but resulted from a mixture of internal and external causes that casts doubt on the policy of combining a wholly nuclear generator with liberalized power markets. This book will be of great interest to students engaged with the history of nuclear power in the UK, privatization, regulation and financial and corporate strategy, as well as experts, policy makers and strategists in the field.

The "Fisher Investments On" series is designed to provide individual investors, students, and aspiring investment professionals the tools necessary to understand and analyze investment opportunities--primarily for investing in global stocks. Each guide is an easily accessible primer to economic sectors, regions, or other components of the global stock market. While this guide is specifically on Utilities, the basic investment methodology is applicable for analyzing any global sector, regardless of the current macroeconomic environment.

Following a top-down approach to investing, "Fisher Investments on Utilities" can help you make more informed decisions within the Utilities sector. It skillfully addresses how to determine optimal times to invest in Utilities stocks and which Utilities industries have the potential to perform well in various environments.

Divided into three comprehensive parts--Getting Started, Utilities Details, and Thinking Like a Portfolio Manager--"Fisher Investments on Utilities" Explains some of the sector's key macro drivers--like regulation, economic cycles, and investor sentimentShows how to capitalize on a wide array of macro conditions and industry-specific features to help you form an opinion on each of the industries within the sectorTakes you through the major components of the industries within the global Utilities sector and reveals how they operateOffers investment strategies to help you determine when and how to overweight specific industries within the sectorOutlines a five-step process to help differentiate firms in this field--designed to help you identify ones with the greatest probability of outperforming

Filled with in-depth insights, "Fisher Investments on Utilities" provides a framework for understanding this sector and its industries to help you make better investment decisions--now and in the future. With this book as your guide, you can gain a global perspective of the Utilities sector and discover strategies to help achieve your investing goals.