Kuwait Financial Centre S.A.K. “Markaz” organized a seminar titled “Mobilizing Capital in Energy: The Competition is Stiff.” The seminar was conducted by former Ambassador William C. Ramsay, Head of the Energy Program at the French Institute of International Relations (IFRI), who explained opportunities of capital mobilization in the Energy field.
The seminar was held within Markaz’s cooperation with IFRI in public policy research in GCC States to support sustainable economic growth by offering solutions in several areas such as Energy. One of the most influential research centres in the world, IFRI is the first French think tank that aims to thoroughly analyze global issues and is financially and politically independent.
Amidst increasing global consumption of energy products and the continuous search for new resources such as oil, natural gas and Shale oil fields, the seminar focused on international factors affecting the energy sector such as strong growth of energy demand, changes in the global geography of demand from western countries as demand for alternative energy and biofuels has moved eastward toward Asian countries especially India and China to achieve their infrastructure development and grand projects. Ambassador Ramsay also highlighted the increasing importance of Shale Oil. He noted that demand for liquid fuel has been increasing, which has led to higher production of biofuel, natural gas and unconventional oil. Meanwhile, production of conventional oil would start gradually decreasing because of the scarcity of newly discovered fields and depletion of reserves. Ambassador Ramsay concluded his seminar asking: “There is plenty of demand for oil but who will produce it?”
The seminar was held as part of the cooperation between Markaz and IFRI. The cooperation includes conducting a series of studies on energy policy which include generating power and water in Kuwait, opportunities to reduce cost by using modern production technologies, and strategic energy studies in the GCC region.
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Photo Caption: Former Ambassador William C. Ramsay and audience in his seminar.
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About Kuwait Financial Centre “Markaz”
Kuwait Financial Centre S.A.K. 'Markaz', with total assets under management of over KD865 million (USD 3.1 billion) as of December 31, 2011, was established in 1974 has become one of the leading asset management and investment banking institutions in the Arabian Gulf Region. Markaz was listed on the Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE) in 1997.