The dramatic decline of oil prices over the past couple of years has led to the re-evaluation of investments into UK North Sea oil and gas production. Potentially untapped resources that remain on the British continental shelf are in areas of more challenging geographies and environments. Even before the commodity crash, many were anticipating a […]
Energy Connections
An easing of the financial burden, perhaps
Energy traders, generally, have been arguing their case for why they should not be regulated under the second markets in financial instruments directive (MiFID II) for some time now. What has been given less attention is some of the consequences of other, related legislation. For example, a firm supervised under MiFID II will instantly have […]
LNG in the Med and topsy-turvy price trends
Observers of the French and Spanish gas markets over the last few months cannot have failed to note a mounting challenge to the traditional price structure in the region. LNG – both in terms of quantity and price – has played an important role in the recent shift. While historically Spanish AOC hub prices have […]
Commission’s about-turn reassures gas shippers
The European Commission’s latest update to EU gas capacity allocation mechanism laws is an encouraging sign for market participants tired of law-makers introducing potentially market-changing rules without understanding their impact. The commission slipped in an unexpected and unwelcome surprise for market participants when it circulated a new draft of a network code for gas markets […]
Part economics, part politics – the role of LNG in Europe
The flood of LNG into Europe, expected by many commentators, has yet to appear. But deliveries are likely to be higher this year than in 2015, and if demand fails to rise in east Asia in the mid-term, Europe could see a big jump in deliveries later in the decade. Perhaps more relevant for now […]
Wire we waiting?
In an event that went largely unnoticed save for a select handful of expert news services – ICIS included of course – Europe’s largest electricity market, Germany, supplied all of its power from renewable sources for a brief hour-long window on Sunday 15 May. This was a milestone of epic proportions, and one worth putting […]
Panama Canal expansion trials in June but what about LNG?
A vessel will trial the newly-expanded Panama Canal from 27 June as part of the project which will cut journey time and distance for new US LNG producers selling into Asia. It has not been an easy path and development of the expansion has been slow and more expensive than planned. Numerous problems included leaks […]
Time for a dose of realism in designing financial regulation
It is interesting to think the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) planned to start accepting from April applications for licences to operate as an investment firm under a new EU financial regime that was slated to come in in early 2017. Now the start of the second markets in financial instruments directive (MiFID II) has […]
Project delays: When the line between parody and reality blurs, it’s time to make a decision
Energy can be a dry topic. Sometimes, if I tell new people I’m an energy journalist a now-familiar look flashes across their face, and it is clear they have just thought, but not said: “Is that a real job then?” As a subject, energy encompasses finance, economics and physics among many other things – rarely […]
REMIT second reporting phase nears
With only a couple of weeks left before additional energy trade reporting requirements kick in, trading firms are trying to solve various last-minute issues. Since October 2015, under the regulation for wholesale energy market integrity and transparency (REMIT), firms registered as market participants have been reporting to the Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER) all […]
Jump to page: