This paper is published under the responsibility of the Secretary-General of the OECD. The opinions expressed and the arguments employed herein do not necessarily reflect the official views of OECD countries. The publication of this document has been authorised by Ken Ash, Director of the Trade and Agriculture Directorate. The statistical data for Israel are supplied by and under the responsibility of the relevant Israeli authorities. The use of such data by the OECD is without prejudice to the status of the Golan Heights, East Jerusalem and Israeli settlements in the West Bank under the terms of international law.

The working paper series is designed to make available to a wide readership selected studies by OECD staff or by outside consultants and are generally available only in their original language, English or French.The present document has been declassified by the Working Party on Agricultural Policies and Markets of the OECD Committee for Agriculture.Comments on this series are welcome and should be sent to tad.contact@oecd.org. OECD FOOD, AGRICULTURE AND FISHERIES WORKING PAPERSare published on www.oecd.org/agricultureApplications for permission to reproduce or translate all or part of this material should be made to: OECD Publishing, rights@oecd.org or by fax 33 1 45 24 99 30. Abstract LONG TERM TRENDS IN AGRICULTURAL POLICY IMPACTSby Roger Martini Economist, OECD Agricultural policies have undergone reforms in most OECD countries, each choosing a different path to replace policies historically based on market price support with other forms of support deemed superior in achieving differing policy objectives. This report looks at the results of this reform in six OECD regions and concludes that while every region has seen progress, results have been uneven. The key to reform that delivers effective results is keeping the focus on reducing market price support. Reforms moving from one form of land-based payment to another offer relatively little scope for improving the impact of the overall policy set. Recent reductions in market price support are at risk of reversal if the current trend towards higher commodity prices does not continue, as much of recent progress reflects market developments and not underlying policy change.

The definition and management of a production strategy for petroleum fields is one of the

This report analyses the agricultural risk management system in Canada, applying a holistic approach that considers the interactions between all sources of risk, farmers‘ strategies and policies. The policy analysis is structured around three layers of risk that require a differentiated policy response: normal (frequent) risks that should be retained by the farmer, marketable intermediate risks that can be transferred through market tools, and catastrophic risk that requires government assistance. The main policy issue in this report is the definition of the boundaries of these different layers. In Canada the system is overcrowded with policies and unable to signal risk layers in which farmers should take their own responsibility of management. Policies include AgriInvest, AgriInsurance, AgriStability, AgriRecovery and ad hoc measures. The analysis of AgriStability provides insights about the economics of agricultural income stabilization policies.agricultural policy, montecarlo simulations, catastrophic risk income stabilization, policy targeting, insurance, risk-management

The working paper series is designed to make available to a wide readership selected studies by OECD staff or by outside consultants and are generally available only in their original language.This document and any map included herein are without prejudice to the status of or sovereignty over any territory, to the delimitation of international frontiers and boundaries and to the name of any territory, city or area.Comments on this series are welcome and should be sent to tad.contact@oecd.org. OECD FOOD, AGRICULTURE AND FISHERIES WORKING PAPERSare published on www.oecd.org/agriculture © OECD 2012 Applications for permission to reproduce or translate all or part of this material should be made to: OECD Publishing, rights@oecd.org or by fax 33 1 45 24 99 30. Abstract FUEL TAX CONCESSIONS IN THE FISHERIES SECTOR Roger Martini, OECDAt the 2009 Pittsburgh Summit, G20 leaders requested an analysis of the scope of energy subsidies and suggestions regarding how they may be phased out and rationalised. This report responds to this request by identifying and measuring fuel tax concessions in the fisheries sector. It provides data on fuel use, tax concessions, and related information for OECD countries and partners, as well as describing some of the key challenges in measuring data of this type.

Governments reform policies in order to improve their efficiency and respond to changing social priorities. Reform is resisted when concerns exist about those who may lose out in the process, or when other policy goals are negatively impacted. Compensation can remove barriers to reform by addressing this resistance, and can contribute to adjustment by speeding its process but may itself impede the reform process if it masks the market signals that lead to adjustment. Compensation is not always necessary or appropriate, and should not be seen a prerequisite for reform.

No abstract

Quality map is an important tool which can assist in the definition andrefinement of production strategies, since it indicates the production potentialof each place of the reservoir, combining several parameters that influence oilrecovery efficiency. This work has used numerical simulation to analyse theperformance of different production strategies used in waterflood projects foran offshore reservoir; these strategies included peripheral injection/centralproduction, a 5-spot injection/production scheme and a strategy defined withthe assistance of a quality map; after the initial process of strategy definition,all schemes were optimised. The refinement procedure was assisted by anexpert system, which proposes well modifications based on the analysis ofeconomic and technical parameters and stores the analysed parameters in adatabank. The results show that the use of the quality map improved to agreat extent the processes of strategy definition and refinement, yielding better results and requiring fewer simulation runs. The application of qualitymaps to petroleum reservoirs is still quite recent, with very few workspublished; however, they present great potential for the E&P industry, aspresented here.