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Course review: Global Oil Markets

In the week of elections in Iraq the price of oil remains one of the most important economic and political issues in the current age. MJMEnergy Training Network’s Global Oil Market one-day seminar provides an intensive overview of the diverse mixture of physical, economic and political forces that shape the oil market and the behavior of oil prices.

The course focuses on the characteristics of oil as a commodity, looking at areas such as prices, costs and taxes, crude oil properties, geography and transportation, and politics and the environment. The section on upstream geology and politics reviews the extent of remaining oil reserves and takes a long perspective on the role of OPEC in the market. Midstream transport and refining examines the different types of crude oil and oil products and describes refinery operations and economics. Downstream market structure and competition considers the role of oil in the global economy, including changes in the demand barrel and the impact of environmental policies and taxation. Global supply demand and inventories describes the data and tools used in fundamental analysis of oil supply and demand, and examines the effects of fundamentals on prices. Finally, oil markets structure and price behavior, looks at the different oil trading markets and price benchmarks, including forward curves and the main factors driving oil prices, both short-term and long-term.

On first attending the course, I found it opened my eyes to wide areas of the market I had not properly understood, despite considerable experience in the energy industry. Other delegates have commented on the individual attention to questions and the expertise of the lecturers, facilitating understanding for all. The lecturers, David Long and Margaret Chadwick, of Oxford Petroleum Research Associates, each have over twenty five years experience of analyzing oil market structure and oil price behaviour. They are regular contributors to the Centre for Global Energy Studies and Argus Media publications, particularly Argus Fundamentals, for which they collect data and provide a regular monthly commentary on oil markets. David is also editor of the Oil Trading Manual. Covering a wide range of material in one day, I have found the Global Oil Markets seminar an excellent overview of this complex market.