Editor's letter

This issue reveals the winners of the 2007 Energy Risk Awards. The award coverage highlights why those selected for an award stood out. Thanks very much to Vincent Kaminski for his much-valued input as an external judge on the Energy Risk awards panel this year.

What many of the winners shared is a commitment to furthering the market at large. Market improvement has also been made a key priority of the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission under the leadership of current chairman Joseph Kelliher. Read David Watkins' interview with him on page 49 where he talks about his ideas, including the series of public conferences he's driving this year to discuss how competition in the US wholesale power markets can be improved.

Although it's broadly assumed that recent buoyant oil and gas prices have boosted the performance of oil and gas companies across the board, as McKinsey & Company point out, it is actually extremely difficult to compare the performance of companies of different sizes and in different regions. In an in-depth survey, which has taken months to compile, McKinsey consultants have developed measures that enable cross-company comparisons to be made across trading and risk management functions. The results are published here exclusively on page 56.

Also with this issue of Energy Risk comes the inaugural edition of our new quarterly publication Commodity Risk. With the energy sector increasingly affecting – and being affected by – the wider world of commodities, we hope this extra information will be valuable to you.

Finally, I look forward to meeting as many of you as possible at Energy Risk USA in Houston on May 15–16.