• Opinion

  Could oil Majors and Independents generate record free cash flow this year?

  • 25 2月 2021

  IOCs have just been through one of their toughest ever years. But the sector is primed for a V-shaped free cash flow recovery, potentially to record levels. What’s fuelling the shift in fortunes, and how will it shape corporate priorities?

• Opinion

  Batteries with Chinese characteristics

  • 10 2月 2021

  At present, China accounts for almost 75% of global lithium-ion battery manufacturing capacity and this share is set to increase through the short term with its build-out of new facilities.

• Opinion

  Offshore wind: long-term promise after short-term decline

  • 04 2月 2021

  Annual installs dropped 29% in 2020, but FIDs for new capacity hit an all-time high and a record number of alliances were formed. With the scale of ambition increasing, what will 2021 bring?

• Opinion

  Are Japan’s upstream players heading for the exit?

  • 02 2月 2021

  Japan’s trading houses are re-thinking their long-term strategies around upstream investment.

• Opinion

  Biden’s climate plans aim at job creation

  • 29 1月 2021

  The president wants to support renewables and EVs, while having little immediate impact on oil and gas

• Opinion

  China-US relations, tech wars and climate change

  • 26 1月 2021

  When President Xi Jinping spoke of the risks of ‘tech wars’ at the World Economic Forum’s virtual Davos Agenda event on Monday, there was little doubt who he was aiming at. At a White House briefing later that day, press secretary Jen Psaki stated that “Technology is of course at the centre of US-China competition.”

• Opinion

  Making sense of Asia’s sky-high spot LNG prices

  • 20 1月 2021

  None of us could have foreseen what happened this winter. Cost of supply became an irrelevance as Asian spot LNG prices went into orbit. From lows of around US$2/mmbtu in April, the JKM price soared north of US$32/mmbtu last week, with media reports of Trafigura purchasing a cargo from Total at US$39.3/mmbtu.

• Opinion

  Rising oil prices test US producers’ willpower

  • 15 1月 2021

  WTI above $50 means US E&Ps can hold production flat while paying down debt. But will they be tempted to go for growth?

• Opinion

  International explorers steer clear of Alaska’s wildlife refuge

  • 08 1月 2021

  Reputational, legal and political risks meant there was little interest in a first-ever lease sale in the area. But Alaska’s oil industry has other more promising prospects

• Opinion

  Is the energy transition road paved with scrap metal?

  • 07 1月 2021

  Scrap could help to decarbonise the metals and mining industry, and fill a looming supply gap – but policy change will be crucial.

• Opinion

  Catch, don’t release: the dawn of the CCS era

  • 11 8月 2021

  With three of the largest gas projects approved this year – Barossa (Australia), North Field East (Qatar) and Ghasha (UAE) coming with associated CCS plans, do barriers exist for carbon sequestration's continued growth?

• Opinion

  Tracking the source of the single-use plastics crisis

  • 03 8月 2021

  Wood Mackenzie recently contributed to a landmark study by the Minderoo Foundation, The Plastic Waste Makers Index: Revealing the source of the single-use plastics crisis. By following the materials and the money involved, we wanted to track the production of the polymers destined for single-use plastics, assess how much ends up as waste and explore the future of the industry.

• Opinion

  COP26: how the energy and natural resources industries are responding to climate change challenges

  • 04 8月 2021

  After a year of delay due to Covid-19, COP26 will define the next five years’ climate ambitions. In this week’s COP26 briefing, we explore the issues facing the energy transition and the challenges around carbon emissions

• Opinion

  Electric vehicle infrastructure investment trends to watch

  • 29 7月 2021

  Just as EV sales are accelerating, so too must the development of supporting infrastructure. How has investment activity evolved over the last decade – and what could that mean for the future?

• Opinion

  Electrification: essential to decarbonisation but with major challenges ahead

  • 20 7月 2021

  The building and transportation sectors account for 33% of global CO2 emissions, making the electrification of those sectors key to decarbonisation.

• Opinion

  The global electric vehicle race is heating up

  • 11 8月 2021

  Battery electric vehicles will be the dominant form of road transport by 2050. Tesla is currently leading the EV charge, but could Volkswagen move into the top spot?

• Opinion

  Three lessons the renewables boom can learn from the shale bust

  • 21 7月 2021

  What could the renewable energy industry and its investors learn from shale's experience? A few interesting points of comparison are starting to emerge.

• Opinion

  US oil producers live up to their promises on spending restraint

  • 16 7月 2021

  The recovery in crude prices, taking WTI to over $70 a barrel, has meant that the cash flows coming in to US E&Ps have been soaring. But the industry’s response to these price signals, in terms of increased activity and production, has been much more cautious than has been typical over the past decade. Management teams have talked about strengthening balance sheets and returning cash to shareholders, and now they are delivering on those commitments.

• Opinion

  Coal enjoys a temporary reprieve

  • 09 7月 2021

  Reports of the death of coal have been greatly exaggerated. Demand has been bouncing back this year as the world economy picks up again, and some prices have hit their highest levels for more than a decade.

• Opinion

  What ‘vehicle-to-everything’ electric vehicle pilots mean for the grid

  • 23 6月 2021

  As rates of bus electrification continue to rise globally, fleet operators are looking to a novel solution to drive down costs and smooth the transition: vehicle-to-everything (V2X). What’s the potential of this technology, and what stands in the way of commercialisation?

• Opinion

  China becomes the world’s largest LNG market

  • 16 6月 2021

  With Japan’s LNG demand in long-term structural decline, China will this year become the world’s largest LNG market.

• Opinion

  Asia’s frozen upstream M&A sector begins to thaw

  • 10 6月 2021

  Global upstream M&A is bouncing back. The recent increase in asset acquisitions saw North American deal flow hit its highest level since 2019, while across the rest of the world M&A activity is showing signs of a gradual – if uneven - recovery from the abyss of 2020.

• Opinion

  Tracking the trajectory of the global energy storage market

  • 21 4月 2021

  Global energy storage deployment surged 62% in 2020, and we expect the global market to grow 27-fold by 2030. But where will growth come from? What technologies will triumph? And what will it all cost?

• Opinion

  Electric vans on the brink of a commercial breakthrough

  • 16 4月 2021

  There is a dispute over whether the US Postal Service should buy EVs, but the private sector is pressing ahead with orders.

• Opinion

  Global wind turbine market: state of play

  • 14 4月 2021

  After a record-breaking year, what are the key wind turbine market trends – and which OEMs have secured the most market share?

• Opinion

  Colonial pipeline hack exposes the vulnerability of critical infrastructure

  • 14 5月 2021

  The ransomware attack on the Colonial pipeline system had only a marginal impact on fuel markets, but could have been much more serious.

• Opinion

  Australia-China relations continue to sour

  • 13 5月 2021

  With China buying around a third of everything Australia exports on a value basis, the downward spiral in Sino-Australian diplomatic relations is clearly of concern.

• Opinion

  Connect four: key findings from the first four editions of Horizons

  • 12 5月 2021

  Will falling costs secure solar’s dominance in power? Can Europe slash its emissions by 2030? Will China win the clean energy race? What would an accelerated energy transition mean for oil and gas prices? Find out in our Horizons recap.

• Opinion

  The challenge of upgrading the US grid

  • 07 5月 2021

  The shift towards renewable power generation relies on adding transmission capacity. Opposition to new lines makes that an uphill battle.

• Opinion

  US nuclear’s problems add to the challenge of carbon-free power

  • 30 4月 2021

  The shutdown of the Indian Point nuclear plant underlines the difficulty of achieving 100% zero-carbon electricity in the US by 2035