Commodities
Launched in 1994, Energy Risk is an online publication and in-person events company dedicated to the energy risk management and risk transfer business.
Please visit energyrisk.com for more insight and commentary.
Playing catch-up
Automated settlement
The CDO detectives
Cover Story
The final countdown
The Basel Committee's most recent quantitative impact study shows a wider variation in capital among participating banks than many had been expecting. But Gerhard Hofmann, Germany's representative on the Basel Committee, reckons Germany's banks are well…
Knocking down barriers
A new reinsurance directive passed by the European parliament in early June will eradicate the collateral requirements demanded by European supervisors. With a unified framework agreed for Europe, politicians are now turning their sights on the US. By…
MiFID: the race to comply
The EU's Markets in Financial Instruments Directive has been described as one of the most far-reaching overhauls of the financial industry ever. But with Basel II dominating the headlines, few firms have yet started to prepare in earnest for the 2007…
BNP Paribas strengthens energy derivatives team
French bank BNP Paribas has strengthened its commodity derivatives team in New York, London and Singapore, particularly on the energy side.
Former Swiss Re weather experts launch hedge fund
Weather risk veterans Mark Tawney and Bill Windle, who left global reinsurer Swiss Re on July 7, are starting a hedge fund, named Takara, Energy Risk has learned. Weather trader Bill MacLauchlan departed Swiss Re at the same time, for personal reasons.
Nymex, Icap to launch gas, crude oil daily settlement derivatives
The New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex) and inter-dealer broker Icap are to launch an electronic market in same-day over-the-counter (OTC) options on prompt-month settlement prices for crude oil and natural gas. Starting on Monday (July 18), the…
Nymex and Icap launch same-day OTC energy options
The New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex) and brokerage firm Icap are to launch an over-the-counter (OTC) market in same-day options on crude oil and natural gas on July 18.
Five new Dow Jones-AIG indexes launched
Dow Jones Indexes and AIG Financial Products have released five new indexes and sub-indexes covering futures on commodities including agricultural products and energy.
Some brokers taking wrong approach to freight, says senior broker
Inter-dealer brokers could be taking the wrong approach by entering the freight derivatives market through joint ventures with physical shipping brokers rather than directly broking physical freight, says a senior energy broker.
Struggling for growth
All three Canadian energy exchanges – NGX, Watt-Ex and NetThruPut – are finding it slow-going with their expansion plans. Meanwhile the rivalry between NGX and Watt-Ex is growing. Joe Marsh reports
Storage strategies
Companies are increasingly realising they can use natural gas storage to add value to their bottom line. TransCanada’s Farzan Nathoo weighs up the strategies available for optimising value through storage
SEC: What's Next?
William Donaldson's quick retirement from the chairmanship of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) last month brings to mind the pithy Italian proverb from the recent Papal Conclave: "After a fat Pope, a skinny pope."
De-leveraging credit risk
Leverage
Training the tiger
Derivatives are finally beginning to gain wider acceptance in Taiwan, but senior executives remain wary, associating them with the collapse of Barings and, more recently, China Aviation Oil’s huge trading losses, finds David Hayes
A calculated gamble
After a promising start, Canadian carbon trading has slowed. The country has much work to do if it wants to get a domestic greenhouse-gas trading market running ahead of the 2008 Kyoto deadline. By Catherine Lacoursiere
The best of all worlds
Thanks to their varying scale, structure and diversity, European organisations often have very different solutions to risk management. But which system is the most effective? In an exclusive to Energy Risk, the European Energy Risk Forum offers a route…
Emissions education
As the European carbon market continues to grow, so too do some unique challenges: not least the gap between retail and wholesale players and the problem of counterparty credit risk. Oliver Holtaway reports
Editor
"With oil prices at record highs, energy is set to remain key in strategic decision making"
Trusts gain traction
Canadian oil and gas companies are rushing to convert to royalty trusts, despite the stigma some attach to them. This is good news for the energy-hedging market, but some still have reservations about the trust sector. By Joe Marsh
A good time to build
US utilities may need to spend more than $100 billion in the next 25 years on new power plants and transmission capacity. Richard McMahon looks at how utilities are assessing long-term risks and attracting potential investors
Banking on tankers
Logical Information Machines’ Sandy Fielden provides an analyst’s perspective of new opportunities for freight risk management with a specific focus on the crude (dirty) tanker trade from the Caribbean to the US Gulf