This thesis develops a story about Venezuela as an oil state and the way it deploys its policies to instrumentalise culture and urban space. It examines the way the Petrostate is imagined in speeches, how it manifests physically in space and how it is discursively constructed in adverts. By engaging with the work of Henri Lefebvre, Bob Jessop and George Yúdice this thesis sets out to challenge the disciplinary compartmentalisation of the analysis of the material and cultural effects of oil to demonstrate that within the extractive logic of the Petrostate and the oil industry, territory, oil, and culture become indivisible. Mainly, it explores how the material and immaterial flows of oil traverse space, bureaucratic power, and culture. This thesis is particularly concerned with investigating the discursive and institutional mechanisms that enabled the Venezuelan stateowned oil company PDVSA to expand its dominant space over Caracas to effectively reframe the city as an urban oil field. The thesis develops through four interconnected arguments. It examines the representations of space produced by Petrosocialism through the creation of the new policy instruments of the Socialist State Space. This process opened an institutional and legal breach that enabled PDVSA, the state-owned oil company, to enact the Oil Social District as a parallel State Space. Consequently, PDVSA’s definition of its corporate headquarters as a centre of oil extraction conceptualises Caracas as an oil field absorbed by the Oil Social District to enable PDVSA La Estancia (the cultural and social arm of PDVSA) to override municipal authority and embark on an ambitious program of public art restoration and urban regeneration. PDVSA La Estancia’s actions in the city are justified by its use of farming language that discursively melds oil and culture in a symbiotic and cyclical relationship to define their work as ‘oil that harvests culture’. Moreover, the advertising campaign ‘we transform oil into a renewable resource for you’ is used by PDVSA La Estancia to render oil and culture as equivalent, conceiving culture as ‘renewable oil’ as if culture could accumulate in the subsoil waiting to be extracted, exploited and processed like a mineral resource. An original contribution of this thesis is to build on Yúdice’s expediency of culture as a resource to propose the notion of culture-as-mineral deposit, in which culture is inextricable from land, akin to ‘renewable oil’ and tightly controlled by the Petrostate.

This thesis examines the impact of oil price movements on the UK economy. To this end, it is composed of three chapters which use different approaches in order to assess the causes and the consequences of oil price shocks on the main UK macroeconomic fundamentals. In Chapter 1, we analyse the impact of oil price fluctuations on the UK economy using a two-stage method. This empirical strategy allows us to decompose oil price changes depending on the underlying source of the shock. In line with previous studies, our results show that, since the mid-1970s, oil price movements have been mainly associated with shocks to oil demand rather than oil supply. We contribute to previous literature by finding that the consequences of oil price changes on UK macroeconomic aggregates depend on the different types of oil shocks. Thus, for instance, increases of global real economic activity do not depress the domestic economy in the short run. Conversely, shortfalls in crude oil supply cause an immediate fall of UK GDP growth. As a consequence, the Bank of England sets the nominal interest rate depending on the nature of the shock hitting the oil market. Our results also show that domestic inflation increases following a rise in the real oil price. Finally, we find that in response to oil price increases, although UK macroeconomic fundamentals worsen, the government deficit reduces. In Chapter 2, we develop and estimate, using Bayesian methods, an open economy two-bloc DSGE model in order to analyse the responses of the UK economy and the rest of the world to different sources of oil price shocks. We consider the period in which the UK was a net oil exporter that also corresponds to the Non-Inflationary, Consistently Expansionary (NICE) decade (1990-2005). In line with previous literature, our findings confirm that global oil shocks are mainly responsible for UK oil price changes. Our impulse response analysis shows that a drop in the oil price stimulates UK GDP and reduces domestic inflation inducing the BoE to lower the nominal interest rate. In contrast to previous studies, we find that the UK exchange rate responds differently according to the source of oil price shocks. In particular, a positive shock to foreign oil intensity induces an appreciation of the Pound. Conversely, a positive shock to foreign oil supply causes a depreciation of the British Sterling. Generally, a fall in the oil price worsens the UK trade balance, since UK is a net oil exporter. Finally, our historical decomposition analysis contributes to previous literature by showing that episodes of sharp increases in the oil price are associated with falls in the UK output and rises in the domestic inflation. In Chapter 3, we study the main transmission channels of oil price fluctuations for the UK economy and the consequences of oil price changes on its public finances. Our model is estimated with Bayesian techniques over the same sample period as in Chapter 2. In line with previous literature, our results show that foreign oil demand and supply shocks are the main factors explaining the UK oil price volatility. In contrast to existing studies we find that the variation of UK government debt is broadly explained by oil price fluctuations related to changes in the foreign oil intensity. We extend the previous literature by estimating the parameters of several fiscal policy rules. In particular, we find that the response of petroleum revenue tax to oil price changes is stronger than the response of fuel duty tax to domestic oil demand. In line with Chapter 2, our impulse response analysis indicates that a decrease in the oil price positively affects the UK economy inducing an increase in its GDP and a fall in the domestic inflation. However, the drop in the oil price generates a negative effect on the UK trade balance. In contrast to Chapter 2, we find that a positive foreign oil intensity shock causes depreciation in the Pound. The latter effect occurs as the decrease in the UK VAT causes a reduction in the price of domestic consumption goods. Finally, we are able to quantify the size of the responses of UK public finances to oil price shocks. Our results indicate that a fall in the oil price induces a reduction in UK total tax receipts and, in turn, causes the rise in the government debt. Thus, for example, we find that a positive shock to foreign oil intensity increases UK government debt by £ 700 millions during the first year and £ 1100 millions in four years.

This thesis critically examines exports of Iranian natural gas to regional and international markets. Owning the world’s 2nd largest proven natural gas reserves, Iran can potentially be considered a major gas exporter. Yet, stringent international sanctions, coupled with domestic politicisation of the industry and lack of an ‘attractive’ investment framework, have made Iran unable to capitalise its huge natural gas potential both in domestic and international markets. In this research, a multidisciplinary approach is adopted to examine the main challenges hampering Iran’s ability to become a major gas exporter. These challenges range from political and legal to economic and fiscal. In this thesis, the extent to which the Iranian gas industry is affected by progressive international sanctions, particularly as a result of U.S. pressures, is considered extensively. It appears that U.S. and international sanctions have had detrimental impact on the development of the Iranian petroleum industry through limiting Iran’s access to financial institutions and technologies. In addition, in Iran the constant policy struggle between the need for foreign investment and technology in the petroleum sector on one hand, and the sentiment towards foreign exploitation on the other, is analysed in terms of impact of political challenges in the development of Iran’s natural gas industry. The legal and fiscal terms of buyback contracts as the only available contractual framework for development of the upstream petroleum sector is also reviewed as a part of the evaluation of the ‘attractiveness’ of Iran’s investment framework. This research offers second thoughts on the over-estimated role of law in development of natural resources and illuminates the importance of other factors, including policy making and governance institutions, in attracting foreign investors and the development of the petroleum sector. In the discussion about the development of Iran’s natural gas industry, subsidies are also identified as economic challenges, deterring foreign investors, causing wasteful consumption and creating an inflated domestic market. Two years into the subsidies reform in Iran, the plan has fallen short of achieving its objectives, including controlling domestic energy consumption and freeing up capital to be re-invested in the petroleum industry, mainly as a result of deteriorating economic conditions and Government mismanagement. The issue of supplying gas to domestic or export markets in the light of the country’s current limited production capacity has turned into a major political debate between the Parliament and the Government resulting in failure to fully meet its supply commitments to either market. Inability to produce adequate volumes of gas and its ‘ambitious’ gas expansion policies both in domestic and international markets, has forced the country to import gas from Turkmenistan. The unexpected title of ‘a net gas importer’ for a country with the 2nd largest gas reserves in the world, has raised many questions over the country’s ability to substantially contribute to the growing global gas market. In this thesis, attempts are also made to highlight the social and economic benefits of allocating gas to domestic and export markets. However, conducting a solid economic analysis is not possible, as first of all, such an analysis is beyond the scope of this thesis, and secondly the required data and statistical material is not available or accessible. This research suggests that given the country’s huge domestic market, industrialisation targets, young population and the necessity for job creation, as well as country’s dependence on gas re-injection into oilfields to maintain the oil production, Iran may not want to be “the next Qatar” in terms of exports. Available data suggest that gas export is not the most beneficial economic outcome for Iranian gas; and for all of the foregoing reasons, and even if sanctions are removed, it would take Iran 15-20 years to develop such a major export capability. This thesis offers recommendations to policy makers to conduct comprehensive economic analyses over costs and benefits of allocating gas to domestic and export markets, while giving due consideration to the pressing issue of ‘welfare maximisation’ and distributional impact of consuming gas domestically.

A burgeoning literature argues that the abundance of oil in developing countries strengthens autocratic rule and erodes democracy. However, extant studies either show the average cross-national correlation between oil and political regime or develop particularistic accounts that do not easily lend themselves to theorizing. Consequently, we know little of the causal mechanisms that potentially link oil wealth to undemocratic outcomes and the conditions that would help explain the ultimate, not average, effect of oil on political regime. This study develops a conditional theory of the “political resource curse.” It does so by undertaking a statistical reassessment of the relationship between oil wealth and political regime and a nuanced qualitative examination of a set of carefully selected cases in order to contribute to developing an adequate account of causal mechanisms that transmit and conditions that shape the relationship between oil abundance and autocracy. It draws on qualitative and quantitative evidence collected over eighteen months of fieldwork in oil-rich former Soviet countries of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan, and the ‘counterfactual’ oil-poor Kyrgyzstan. Employing a theoretical framework that draws on insights from the rentier state theory, historical institutionalism, and rational choice institutionalism, I trace, compare, and contrast the processes that potentially link oil wealth to regime outcomes in these countries between 1989 and 2010. The findings strongly suggest that political regime differences can be better explained by the interaction of oil wealth with several structural and institutional variables rather than by oil abundance or another single factor alone. A thorough qualitative analysis of the post-Soviet cases shows that the causal mechanisms hypothesized in the ‘resource curse’ literature were neither necessarily present, nor uniform across these cases and throughout the post-Soviet period. This was because a particular interaction of exogenous variables and oil wealth affected the causal mechanisms differently, ultimately entailing different regime outcomes. The spread of alternative political elites, relative size of the ethnic minority with ties to a powerful kin state, and oil production geography were key exogenous factors that consistently interacted with oil in affecting the political regimes.

The petroleum industry is generally regarded as one of the most secretive sectors and Bangladesh's petroleum sector is no exception. In this thesis I examine how transparency, supposedly an opposite notion to secrecy, works in Bangladesh's petroleum sector. Of the many possible aspects of transparency, the study mainly focuses on its information flowfacilitating and accountability-enhancing aspects, and on two benchmarks of transparency, namely, access to information and public participation in the decision-making process. Examination of field data through the lens of these two benchmarks leads to the finding that within a legal framework, both transparency-promoting and transparency-inhibiting modes of approaches can coexist; it is actually the actors whose actions determine the overall transparency outcome in this sector with the actors preferring one mode over the other. It is also found that factors such as perceptions, attitudes, cultures and even prejudices of the actors involved in the sector can influence the actions of the actors when they apply rules and procedures in the petroleum sector on a day-to-day basis. Depending on such influence the actors' actions or the positions they adopt may either impede or promote transparency in practice. However, it has also been found that while the petroleum industry's approach to transparency may not be on a par with the benchmarks of transparency that this research set out to explore, the industry indeed has its own kind of transparency occasions. The research examines each of these occasions, exploring their meeting and departing points with the transparency benchmarks, and looks for answers and explanations. The findings, therefore, may help develop a nuanced understanding of the workings of the petroleum sector generally," and its interplay with transparency particularly.

Ever since a stochastic process for valuing futures contracts was first introduced by Black in 1976, a large number of people have been drawn to this developing domain of quantitative finance. To be more specific, at the end of the last century, Schwartz built a factor model system, step by step, with different co-workers. Following that, crude oil has been experiencing an unprecedented boom since the beginning of this century. This commodity and its related financial products play an unprecedentedly important role in the financial markets and in our day-to-day life. In this thesis, the standards for WTI futures contracts and their options will be introduced after the introduction. Then, the original Schwartz (1997) model system, including the One-Factor model, the Two-Factor model and the Three-Factor model, is discussed in the following section. The thesis focuses next on augmenting the original Two-Factor model. For example, the Two-Factor model will be run based on different estimation methods and will be combined with an options pricing model. Lastly, the stochastic process of the volatility of the spot price of WTI crude oil will be inserted into the original Two-Factor model and the Three-Factor model, which means that new Three-Factor and Four-Factor models will be proposed in this thesis.

Modern science is well established as the institution through which knowledge is legitimated, facts are produced, and credibility is assigned. Operating within the prevailing capitalist socio-political order, science is also controlled by the wealthy elite, whose resources are required for its production, evaluation, and implementation. Beyond disproportionately serving powerful interests, however, science enables the most privileged groups within society to embolden certain understandings of the world and marginalize others, to shape public perceptions, behaviors, and norms, and thus to reinforce the existing social systems and institutions that support their own dominance. Building on critical scholarship that addresses inequality by problematizing the structures and practices that reproduce power, this thesis examines the prominent and politically opposed positions of the oil industry and mainstream environmentalists in the U.S. policy debate over whether to permit petroleum development in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). Specifically, through Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), I explore how these two ‘mid-stream’ scientific actors, which have effectively appropriated the wider ‘for’ and ‘against’ drilling campaigns respectively, each engage with the generation as well as dissemination of technical knowledge in order to substantiate their arguments and enhance the authority of their claims. The analysis presented here demonstrates that the hegemonic framing of the ANWR conflict, which I describe in terms of Materialism as Morality, reifies scientific expertise whilst burying values beneath assumptions of objectivity and neutrality. It also allows incongruent truth claims to eclipse the many legitimate but competing perspectives, priorities, investments, ideologies, risks, and ethical dilemmas that lie at the heart of the ANWR drilling debate. Moreover, this framing is implicit in the perpetuation of systemic social and environmental injustice. Ultimately, my research argues for a transformative politics that engages all stakeholders in the negotiation of competing interests, the discussion of social values, and the production of scientific knowledge; and above all, which recognizes the interconnectivity of all three.

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Alongside exponential rises in global prices for gold, there has been a concurrent rise in the geographical scope of the artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) sector. This poverty-driven activity has been associated with elevated levels of environmental degradation, a high degree of informality, poor health and safety practices and below market prices for their gold. Despite these putatively conceived problems, there has been a historical and widespread failure by policy makers to significantly improve thesocio-economic and environmental conditions facing ASM’s operators. Recently, however, there has been a noticeable shift in the ways in which the governance of the sector is enacted. This thesis critically analyses the emergence of one such example, namely the Fairtrade Labelling Organistion and the Alliance for Responsible Mining’s dual launch of ‘Fairtrade’ and ‘Fairmined’ (FT/FM) certified gold. Inspired by the past successes for the movement in a range of agrifood products and grounded in the discourse of ‘fairness’, its application to ASM promises better prices in exchange for the fulfilment of standards relating to environmental stewardship,a commitment to democratic structures and responsible mining practices. Following the experiences of Fairtrade gold in nine pilot projects in Latin America, its expansion into gold producing countries in sub-Saharan African countries seems inevitable. However, there has been a lack of academic research into its efficacy, a gap that this thesis fills by examining the potential of both the discursive and material ways that Fairtrade and Fairmined gold may operate in Tanzania. It is revealed that ASM operators are negatively represented by conventional thinking as variously criminal, irresponsible and irrational. Against this background, it is argued that the intervention of FT/FM gold can be read through an environmental and social justice framework, one that presents a counter-narrative of ASM as a valued livelihood strategy marked by environmental responsibility. The struggles for greater recognition and more equitable distribution for ASM operators are premised, most critically on a movetowards a new, ‘fair’ way of mining. Building upon a critical examination of the politics of these discursiveconstructs, the thesis presents a critical examination of ‘fairness’ in practice through a case study. Indeed, a private company, African Precious Metals (APM), has constructed four ‘Fair Trade Gold Centres’ that offer ASM operators in the Mwanza and Shinyanga regions of Tanzania a new means of selling gold. Ideologically separate to the FT/FM model outlined above, their presence in local marketing arrangements for ASM gold has served to obscure the way that ‘fairness’ is conceptualised by ASM operators in the area. Moreover, their substantive failure in policy terms, allied to their close rhetorical association with FT/FM, has served to damage the moral ballast of ‘fairness’ found in the ‘Fairtrade’ gold discourse. Through the critical analysis of life histories narrated by ASM operators in Tanzania, this thesis reveals that there is a substantive gap between the ways in which ‘fairness’ in discursively conceptualised and how it is practically realised. Notable findings that compromise FT/FM’s potential efficacy include the fact that the ‘Fair Trade’ price is significantly lower than local market conditions and that, in the light of their historical failure, there is a deeply-rooted mistrust of development intervention more broadly. In struggling for a ‘fair’ future for ASM’s operators, the Fairtrade movement must also remain careful to avoid the paternalism that has defined erstwhile ASM policy that has promoted partnership.