Staff
Directors
Prof. Anthony (Tony) Owen, Co-Director
Professor of Energy Economics, School of Economics and Finance
Professor Owen has been appointed as Professor of Energy Economics, the first position of its kind in Australia and is Co-Director of the AORE. Tony has had a distinguished career as a researcher, teacher and higher degree student supervisor in the field of energy economics. Tony holds a PhD in Econometrics from the University of Kent (UK) and has held visiting appointments at the Universities of British Columbia, Colorado, Leeds and Exeter, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (Paris), the UK Department of Energy (Harwell), and the International Energy Agency (Paris).
He is a Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society, and Past President (2004) of the International Association for Energy Economics and a founding member and President of the Australian Association for Energy Economics. He serves on the International Editorial Boards of Energy Policy and Energy Sources.
Assoc. Prof. Martin West, Co-Director
School of Information Systems, Curtin Business School
Martin West has been a consultant for many years prior to joining Curtin. He has been involved in providing advice to the WA Office of Gas Regulation as well as other regulatory agencies. Martin has undertaken substantial work in competition policy and has been involved in a large number of consulting and commissioned research projects in this area. Martin has also been involved in the training programs with Kogas as well as the current cohort of China Gas through the Australian Centre for Natural Gas Management. Martin has undertaken very practical oriented research and he ensures that his research and consulting expertise is embodied into well developed teaching and training programs. Dr West is responsible for managing the AORE’s research on the regulatory environment as well as supply chain/procurement issues for the oil and gas industry.
Administration
Muriel Bijoux
Coordinator/Research Assistant, School of Economics and Finance
Muriel has 36 years' administrative experience in a wide variety of administrative roles in the medical, logistics, military, travel and construction industries, including 11 years at Curtin university in administration and research assistant roles. Muriel has particular experience in financial administration and intercultural relations between Australian and francophone cultures.
Principal Researchers
Assoc. Prof. Helen Cabalu
Associate Professor, School of Economics and Finance
Dr Helen Cabalu joined the Area of Research Excellence in Oil and Gas Management (OGM) in January 2008. She is on secondment from the John Curtin Institute of Public Policy at Curtin. At the OGM, Helen's main areas of research include international trade policy in the primary (resource) sector, energy security and energy markets in Asian economies, economic (CGE) modelling, competition policy and regulation in Asia-Pacific economies.
Helen’s previous research has encompassed a wide range of topics in the area of international trade policy (especially in respect of ASEAN and developing countries and in the light of changing World Trade Organisation deliberations),competition policy at the national and international levels, resource economics with major international economics component, macroeconomic policy of economies in East Asia and Australia, the impact of the Asian economic crisis of 1997 and its aftermath, corporate governance reforms in Asia, higher education policy in Australia, and macroeconomic issues concerning the Philippine economy.
Professor Harry Bloch
Professor of Economics, School of Economics and Finance
Harry Bloch has an extensive publication record in the economics of industrial organization, international trade and economic development. He is ranked as one of Australia’s leading authors of highly rated articles in the economics discipline, with over fifty articles in refereed academic journals as well as two edited books, twenty book chapters and well over one hundred conference and seminar presentations. Of particular relevance to the AORE is his work on the international terms of trade between primary commodity producers and manufacturers, which informs the analysis of the potential returns to primary producers and the users of primary commodities in both the short and long run. Other work with special relevance to the AORE is with research students on estimating cost functions for coal production in Australia, on the determinants of exploration expenditures by the major oil companies, and on regulating rail track access rates. Prof. Bloch is responsible for leading the AORE’s research on technology development, links to science and engineering and the implementation of technology in oil and gas.
Dr. Hiroaki Suenaga
Curtin University Post-doctoral Fellow in Energy Economics
Hiroaki has a PhD in Agricultural and Resource Economics from the University of California, Davis and a first degree from Ryukoku University, Kyoto, Japan. He comes to the School from 1-year into a post doctorate at the University of California, Davis. Hiroaki has expertise in applied econometrics, in particular, time series analysis of energy price series, and a good knowledge of commodity markets as well as deregulation of the energy sector, particularly the electricity and natural gas industry in the United States. His current research interests are in the volatility dynamics of natural gas and other energy prices and implications for optimal investment and contracting decision and risk management practices.
Dr Suenaga is responsible for managing the AORE’s research into oil and gas markets.
Professor Dale Pinto
Professor, School of Business Law, Curtin Business School
Professor Dale Pinto is a Professor of Taxation Law, who has particular interests and expertise in international taxation policy, including electronic commerce. Professor Pinto has published widely in national and international refereed journals and has contirbuted to international tax policy development at national and international taxation conferences. He is also a member of many professional bodies, including CPA Australia and the Taxation Institute of Australia and sits on several Editorial Boards for law and business-related journals.
Prof. Pinto is responsible for managing the AORE’s research into contracts and taxation.
Associate Professor Peter Galvin
Associate Professor, Graduate School of Business
Peter Galvin has a substantial publication record of research dealing with strategic alliances, knowledge transfer and the building of competitive advantage in technologically advanced industries. He has one co-authored book, three book chapters, nine articles in refereed journals and almost twenty papers at refereed conferences. He has also been particularly active in supervision of doctoral students with four completed doctoral students and thirteen in progress. Peter’s research on the role of strategic alliances and knowledge transfer are particularly relevant to the analysis of supply chains in the natural gas business. Assoc. Prof. Galvin is responsible for managing the AORE’s research on strategic management in the oil and gas industry.
Dr Ruhul Salim
Senior Lecturer, School of Economics and Finance
Dr Salim is responsible for managing the AORE’s research into oil and gas issues for developing countries.
Dr. John Simpson
Senior Lecturer, School of Economics and Finance
John Simpson was awarded his PhD from the University of Western Australia in 2000 on the topic of International Banking Risk Modelling in the disciplines of economics, banking and finance. His research has been well published in internationally refereed journals in the areas of international economics, banking and finance and specifically research into the interaction of banking, stock markets and now oil and gas markets. His current research in oil and gas is around the area of global pricing in spot LNG markets. John is an experienced academic having worked at the Curtin Business School for around 15 years, engaging in lecturing, research publication, research supervision, offshore program administration and international consulting functions and activities.
Dr. Amit Rudra
Lecturer, School of Information Systems
Amit Rudra researches in the area of business intelligence and database related topics. His research expertise is data warehousing and data mining. He has published and presented several research papers at well known international academic and industrial conferences. Currently, he is supervising a higher degree by research student whose topic of research involves application of data warehousing and data mining techniques in the resources industry. As a result of this research over the last couple of years he, along with his student, has published five research papers pertaining oil and gas resources of Australia and in particular of West Australian resources. Further papers in the area are under development. Amit is responsible for managing the AORE’s research on information systems, IT and data mining in the oil and gas industry.
Affiliated Researchers
Professor John Evans
Pro Vice-Chancellor, Curtin University of Technology, Miri, Sarawak
John Evans has a substantial publication record in the areas of corporate governance and corporate finance, with over twenty refereed journal articles as well as working papers and chapters in books. He has been particularly active in the design and delivery of postgraduate and executive education in business and finance, especially relevant is his work on the MBA for the Petroleum University of Iran. John’s research and training work on the finance and economic issues arising from oil and gas projects will contribute substantially to the aims of the proposed AORE.
Professor Phillip Maxwell
Metana Mineral Economics and Mine Management, WA School of Mines
Phillip Maxwell, who has coordinated the Mineral Economics program at WASM since 1992, has developed a strong research and teaching in the area of mineral economics since that time. His recent research has focused on mineral markets, resource sector competitiveness, the relationship of nonrenewable resource exploitation to economic development and the small area impacts of mineral exploitation. He has also been the senior editor of a monograph entitled Australian Mineral Economics published by the AusIMM in mid-2006, and has made a major contribution to this volume. While his major focus is on running the coursework Master’s program in Mineral Economics (and the associated Master’s in Energy Economics and Management), Philip also undertakes limited selected professional consulting activity for government and industry.
Dr. Paul Crompton
Lecturer in Economics, University of Western Australia
Paul Crompton completed his PhD at UWA in 2002 on the East Asian steel industry. He has published three edited books, three chapters in books and seven articles in refereed journals. His research has focussed on the steel industry in East Asia and its upstream connection with the Australian iron ore industry. Of most direct relevance to the AORE is his recent article with Yanrui Wu on forecasting Chinese energy demand. He has also undertaken consultancies for Hamersley Iron and BHP Billiton on forecasting steel production and iron ore demand, and currently has a ARC Linkage grant with Yanrui Wu on forecasting minerals demand (BHP Billiton is the industry partner on the grant).
Dr. Jo Voola
Lecturer in Economics, University of Western Australia
Jo Voola completed her PhD at Curtin in 2003 on strategic interactions in exploration expenditures by the major world oil companies. She has published two articles in refereed academic journals and one in a professional journal, all on aspects of exploration and R&D by oil companies. She has presented eleven refereed conference papers, mostly on aspects of technology and competition. She has taught economics in the Masters in Oil and Gas program at Curtin. Jo also gives a course to the Oil and Gas Engineering students at UWA on "History, Economics, and Geophysics of the oil and gas industry" and is actively involved in developing course material for this unit. She is also a member of the SPE (Society of Petroleum Engineers) and has presented at their conferences.
Dr. John Finch
Senior Lecturer in Economics, Director of Graduate Programmes, University of Aberdeen Business School
John Finch has a substantial publication record in business economics, particularly dealing with knowledge diffusion associated with new technologies. Of particular relevance to the AORE is his work on the diffusion of investment decision-making software and of overarching decision-analysis procedures among companies active in the international upstream petroleum industry. Recent research has been funded by the CSIRO in to risk, uncertainty and decision making. John is an active participant in the petroleum industry research community at the University of Aberdeen and brings his links there to the AORE.
Paul McLeod
University of Western Australia
Paul will be responsible for managing the AORE’s research on contracts and negotiation in the oil and gas industry.