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Robin Mills

Robin Mills is founder of Qamar Energy, established to meet the need for regionally based Middle East energy insight. He is an expert on energy strategy and economics, and has been described by Foreign Policy magazine as “one of the energy world’s great minds.” Prior to this, Mills led major consulting assignments for the EU in Iraq. He also consulted for a variety of international oil companies on Middle East business development, integrated gas and power generation and renewable energy.

Mills worked for a decade at Shell, concentrating on new business development in the Middle East. He subsequently worked for six years with Dubai Holding and the Emirates National Oil Company, better known as Enoc, where he advanced business development efforts in the Middle East energy sector.

He is a fellow at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy, a senior fellow of the Iraq Energy Institute and previously a non-resident fellow for energy at the Brookings Institution. He is currently a columnist at The National and Bloomberg, and the author of “Sunrise in the Desert,” on solar energy in the Middle East, and “The Myth of the Oil Crisis” and “Capturing Carbon.”

Mills holds a first in geology from the University of Cambridge, and speaks Arabic, Farsi, Dutch and Norwegian.

Articles By Robin Mills

The Quest for Green Air Travel By Robin Mills - Mar 19, 2023

An airliner over Dubai’s coast, a single-engine helicopter, and a Japan-Abu Dhabi flight: sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) has proven capable of powering air travel. But can supply rise and cost fall fast enough to make SAF a major part of the aviation industry’s journey to net-zero emissions? While aviation is responsible for about 2 percent of global … Continue reading “The Quest for Green Air Travel”

It’s Not All Sunshine: Middle East Invests Big in Wind Power By Robin Mills - Nov 21, 2022

The story of renewable energy across the Middle East and North Africa is usually told from one viewpoint: the sun that beats down relentlessly on the region’s deserts. Solar is indeed a tremendous source of power and increasingly made to move electrons. But wind also blows across the Middle East’s plains, hills and seas – … Continue reading “It’s Not All Sunshine: Middle East Invests Big in Wind Power”

America’s Failed Quest for Energy Independence By Robin Mills - Oct 21, 2022

The US pursuit of “energy independence,” let alone “energy dominance,” did not last long. Like presidents before him, Joe Biden finds himself in the position of first imploring OPEC states, then expressing anger at their decisions on oil production. But a new, more active American oil policy threatens changes. The meeting in Vienna of the OPEC+ group of leading … Continue reading “America’s Failed Quest for Energy Independence”

The Case for Free-Flowing Electrons By Robin Mills - Sep 30, 2022

The average human body contains some 7 octillion electrons (that’s 27 zeroes) that weigh, altogether, just 19 grams. These tiny particles should be able to cross borders more easily than the average passport-bearing person, but beyond Europe, international trade in electricity is minimal. Yet energy insecurity and climate threats require that transnational currents – electrons – flow … Continue reading “The Case for Free-Flowing Electrons”