1. Home
  2. Research
  3. The Edge
Commodities trading and spreads

The Edge

Weekly insights from our chairman and chief analyst, Simon Flowers, on the issues shaping your industry

 

Meet our Chief Analyst

Welcome to the Edge, the exclusive column from our Chairman & Chief Analyst, Simon Flowers. Drawing on the expertise, intelligence, deep insight and data from across the business, Simon gives his views on the subjects driving debate and shaping our markets.

View Simon's full profile

Latest Post

Why the Permian is set for a shakeout

The best accessible upstream growth opportunity in fifty years? US tight oil. Correction: the Permian Basin. Second correction: the Wolfcamp formation spread across the Delaware and Midland sub-basins.

Recent Posts

Lessons in attracting upstream investment capital

Not long ago, Egypt’s gas industry was in crisis. Production fell by a third in the three years to 2015. A top ten LNG exporter in the prior decade, the country had, by then, become a top ten importer.

OPEC and how low prices have changed oil demand

How to sum up the effect on oil markets of OPEC’s strategy since 2014? Based on how the fundamentals have evolved, it's been a pretty mixed bag.

Risk appetite returns as global upstream investment picks up

Investment is making a comeback. Much of the action, as ever, is in the US Lower 48, with operators responding to higher prices by upping 2018 budgets by 15-20%. But there’s stuff happening, too, in the big wide world beyond onshore USA.

Future cost of new oil supply: shale vs conventional

How much new oil does the world need over the next decade? Where are the competitive plays? What are the economic breakeven prices? Our chief analyst, Simon Flowers, explores in the latest edition of The Edge.

Can the oil industry learn from mining’s famine to feast?

Different markets, different cycles. Mining companies suffered for their sins in the downturn a little earlier than the oil and gas sector. Now they are emerging into a new upturn, also ahead of the game.

Finding the balance between capital discipline and growth

Capital discipline or growth? It’s THE big question hanging over commodity producers, mining as much as oil and gas.

Improving upstream performance and winning over investors

Delivering production growth after three years of low oil prices is an achievement, and combined with higher oil prices, was the primary factor behind good upstream earnings.

Why the commodity rally will get back on track

Are we in the early stages of a sustained rise in commodity prices? And what does it mean for the US dollar? We posed these questions a year ago when robust global economic growth was driving commodity demand and the US dollar was starting to tip over from a 15-year high.

Tight oil set to make money in 2018

A teenage growth spurt – US onshore liquids production is on a tear again. Already rebounding from the downturn for a year, right now it’s turbo-charged.