ABSTRACT
The ‘new economy’ of oil is a mixture of continuity and change. Some of the structural changes are the result of accumulations of past trends to the point where the structure itself is altered: the crumbling stone walls eventually open a new horizon. Others are the result of new forces outside the oil sector. The Internet and communications revolutions are transforming political life and especially the international exchange of opinions and values. These set the context for public policy and the strategies of private corporations. Questions of the acceptability of oil are becoming as important as worries about its availability – at least for the next 20 years. 1 Analysis of supply needs to be matched by understanding of demands, not just for fuels but for environmental and social results. The ‘new economy of oil’ is a political economy, not just in the old geopolitical sense of calculations of national interest, or the newer aspirations for sustainable development, but also in terms of the expansion of the real freedoms that people enjoy. 2
