This dissertation consists of three essays that use applied econometric analysis and other analytical methods from various economic fields, including regional and urban economics, natural resource economics, housing economics, and sports economics. In all three essays, I use hou…
This dissertation analyzes the impact of increasing natural gas import dependence on the foreign policy behavior of Western European countries, and specifically Germany, utilizing both quantitative and qualitative methods. I argue that the influence of an “energy weapon” should …
Today Germany is one of the largest importers of Russian natural gas. The relationship between Germany and Russia has come under fire in recent years, as Russia has used its position as an energy exporter as a political and economic weapon. But despite the opposition of the trad…
This thesis investigates the impact of the 1973 oil shock, its sequel in 1979, and the counter-shock of the mid-1980s on Canada's socio-economy. Over a decade of uncertainty, beginning when members of the Organization for Petroleum Exporting Countries rapidly increased the price…
The oil and gas industry has been dealing with the unconventional reservoirs for about only two decades. Consequently, many challenges remain in evaluating the unconventional reservoirs. A few of these obstacles are the absence of the adequate production history, understanding t…
Despite its long history in the United States and abroad, the unconventional drilling industry, and specifically hydraulic fracturing technology, remain controversial. While the competing demands of energy from oil and gas are contrasted with environmental safety and protection,…
Following the discovery of sizable offshore petroleum deposits off the southeastern coast of Mtwara Region in Tanzania, state and private-sector representatives assured Mtwara residents that they would see intensive government investment in local infrastructure and industry. In …
Photovoltaic (PV) energy represents one of the most importantly clean and cheap energy sources. However, the intermittent behavior of the generated power from PV systems imposes challenges in its design and operation. Due to the internal nature of renewable energy and battery te…
Körfez ĠĢbirliği Konseyi (KĠK), Basra Körfezi‟ne kıyısı bulunan ve ortak coğrafi, tarihi, kültürel, sosyal ve siyasal rejimleri benzer özelliklere sahip altı komĢu Arap ülkesini bir araya getiren bölgesel bir teĢkilattır. Soğuk SavaĢ döneminde özellikle 1970‟li yılların sonunda …
Literature on socio-technical transitions acknowledge that negative risk perception is important to socio-technical transitions. However, beyond acknowledging risk as a potentialbarrier to the deployment of innovative technologies, this study points out that the acceptanceor rej…
The Marcellus Shale is the largest natural gas producing formation in the Appalachian basin, and as such, presents a unique opportunity for continued research on an area that is critical to meeting the energy needs of the current society. Although the Marcellus has historically …
Royal Dutch Shell, plc (Shell, or RDS) is the largest integrated company in the Oil and Gas sector, in terms of assets. It operates globally, with regard to the geography in which it has interests, and integrates the entire value chain into its business model. With more than a c…
Azerbaijan, a landlocked post-Soviet country since its independence has been trying to utilize its energy resources in its foreign policy. With production-sharing agreements with Western oil companies beginning with the 1994 signing of the "Contract of the Century" and the const…
Turkey is located between Europe, which has increasing demand for natural gas and the geographies of Middle East, Asia and Russia, which have rich and strong natural gas supply. Because of the geographical location, Turkey has strategic importance according to energy sources. To…
To deign a natural gas transmission network for the GCC, a mixed integer linear mathematical programming model has been proposed. The gas network will permit the free flow of gas among the GCC countries in order for them to meet increasing, fluctuating, predicted electricity dem…
Natural gas is becoming rapidly the optimal choice for fueling new generating units in electric power system driven by abundant natural gas supplies and environmental regulations that are expected to cause coal-fired generation retirements. The growing reliance on natural gas as…
Natural gas exploration and production has caused large scale changes to portions of the Arkansas landscape. Well pad site construction, access roads, and pipelines utilized to extract and transport natural gas have fragmented forested areas. The forest fragmentation resulting f…
The research presented in this dissertation details the development of a new probabilistic fracture mechanics model of corrosion fatigue failure of steel CNG bus cylinders. This model was used to estimate the frequency of leakage or catastrophic rupture, due to the propagation o…