Non-Resident Fellow, AGSIW; Contributing Editor, MEES; Fellow, Energy Institute
Kate Dourian is a non-resident fellow at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, a contributing editor at MEES, and a fellow at the Energy Institute. Previously she was the regional manager for the Middle East and Gulf states at the World Energy Council, as well as the programme officer for the Middle East and North Africa in the Global Energy Relations Division of the International Energy Agency since September 2015. Her role included building relationships between the IEA and the governments of several Middle East and North Africa countries, using the extensive contacts that she accumulated during three decades spent in several Middle Eastern and North African countries as a journalist and energy analyst. Dourian was actively involved in the discussions that led to Morocco becoming an IEA Association country and the joint work program for which she raised funds from IEA members. She also helped write and edit the Middle East and North Africa sections of several IEA publications and contributed to the supply section of the Oil Market Report. She made presentations on behalf of the IEA in various capitals, most recently at the IEF Ministerial in New Delhi in April 2018. Dourian is often consulted on Middle Eastern matters by banks, financial institutions, and oil and gas companies. She also served as the IEA’s representative on the executive board of the International Energy Forum.
Dourian joined the IEA from the Middle East Economic Survey where she was a senior editor covering energy-related developments in the Middle East for the weekly from 2013-15. She was also responsible for compiling the monthly OPEC survey for MEES, which is one of the secondary sources used by OPEC.
From 2000-13, Dourian was the editor in chief for the Middle East for oil price reporting agency Platts, now a division of S&P Global, based in Dubai. She was also the general manager of McGraw-Hill International. Additionally, she served as a member of the OPEC reporting team and was one of the reporters assigned to compile the OPEC production numbers. While in Dubai, Dourian served as a board member of the American Business Council.
From 1983-2000, Dourian was a correspondent and then a senior editor at Reuters, serving in a number of postings including Beirut, Nicosia, London, and Rabat. She joined the energy desk in 1992, covering the Brent crude market and OPEC meetings. Prior to joining Reuters, Dourian worked as a foreign correspondent for the Associated Press, based in Beirut, Lebanon from 1981-83.
Dourian has been a speaker and moderator at international conferences and has made many radio and television appearances, discussing energy and geopolitics on a number of platforms in English, Arabic, and French on BBC, CNN, Al Arabiya, CNBC, and Al Jazeera English, and has been quoted extensively in several publications.
AGSIW's ninth annual Petro Diplomacy conference examined how the Gulf Cooperation Council countries are managing the energy transition and expectations for the United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP28, in Dubai beginning in November.
The wide-ranging effects of water scarcity in the Gulf are likely to get worse without accelerated mitigation and adaptation measures.
The UAE will need to find common ground to make COP28 a success because time and the Middle East’s remaining carbon budget are running out.
If Middle Eastern countries are to reduce carbon emissions and reach their net-zero targets, solar and wind energy must be scaled up to provide zero-carbon energy and displace natural gas.
As an oil producer seeking to lead the fight against climate change, the United Arab Emirates will have the difficult task of combining its dual roles and finding common ground to make COP28 a success.
Whether oil supply will match an anticipated demand surge hinges on Russia’s response to sanctions and OPEC+ output policy.
Oil market reports highlight uncertainties relating to the speed of the recovery in China and the impact of sanctions on Russian oil exports.
The oil market is showing concerns over weakening oil demand, and new Western sanctions on Russia have introduced an added element of uncertainty in a market already reeling from the repercussions of the Ukraine crisis.
The Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington's eighth annual Petro Diplomacy conference examined the upheaval in the oil and gas markets following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the role of Gulf Arab oil producing states in meeting the sudden demand surge.
The conflict in Ukraine has brought about a change in the psychology and geography of the oil and gas markets, and the ramifications will be felt across the energy complex for years.
