Abstract

This seminar explored an often overlooked aspect of energy security. By considering the interdependent relationship between energy producers and energy consumers, it focused on the producer’s demand security. The seminar illustrated the need for the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states to maintain demand for their oil and gas exports, arguing that the revenues generated by the hydrocarbon sector are needed to maintain domestic stability and to enable the GCC economies to restructure and adapt for the future. The seminar also highlighted the current trends in the global energy security dynamic and their impact on the demand security of the member states of the GCC. The seminar focused on three interrelated “threats” to demand security in the GCC; new energy technologies, growing environmental concerns about the use of fossil fuels and the inherent instabilities in the global energy markets. It argued that these three factors would all converge to generate a new global energy paradigm to which the GCC member states would eventually have to adapt.