Robert Ebel is a senior adviser in the CSIS Energy Program, where he offers views on world oil and energy issues, with particular emphasis on the former Soviet Union and the Persian Gulf. Previously, he served with the CIA for 11 years and spent over 7 years with the Office of Oil and Gas in the U.S. Department of the Interior. He also worked with the Federal Energy Office in the international energy area. Earlier, he worked for ENSERCH Corporation, which he joined as vice president in March 1974, serving for some 14 years, advising the corporation and its subsidiaries on international issues relevant to day-to-day operations.

Ebel has traveled widely in the former Soviet Union and was a member of the first U.S. oil delegation to visit the country in 1960; in 1970, he was part of the first group of Americans to inspect the new oil fields of Western Siberia. In November 1997, he led an International Energy Agency team examining the oil and gas sector of Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. In August 2002, Ebel participated in the Sudanese peace talks, held in Machakos, Kenya, and from December 2002 through April 2003, he worked with a group of former Iraqi oil officials, under the Department of State “Future of Iraq” project, to produce an assessment of the Iraqi oil sector.

Ebel is a past chairman of the Washington Export Council and past member of the board of American Near East Refugee Aid. He received the Department of State’s Distinguished Public Service Award in April 2002. He holds an M.A. in international relations from the Maxwell School at Syracuse University and a B.S. in petroleum geology from Texas Tech. A graduate of the USAF Russian language program, he served in Air Force intelligence during the Korean War.