In this podcast, Bassam Fattouh talks to Paul Horsnell and Ahmed Mehdi about the US-Israel War with Iran and its implications for oil markets. They discuss a number of topics:

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In this podcast, Bassam Fattouh talks to Michal Meidan, Bill Farren Price and Paul Horsnell about the US-Israel War with Iran and its implications for oil and gas markets. They discuss a number of topics:

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In this latest episode of the OIES podcast series, Bassam Fattouh (Director of the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies) discusses with Ilia Bouchouev (managing partner at Pentathlon Investments, Senior Research Fellow at OIES, and adjunct Professor at New York University) recent trends in options trading, algorithmic trading and hedge fund strategies that are shaping oil markets. Based on recent research from the OIES Energy Quantamentals series, they focus on key themes including:

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In this latest OIES podcast, brought to you by the Gas Programme, James Henderson talks to Jack Sharples and Mike Fulwood about the impact of the recent cold weather on gas markets and the outlook for the rest of 2026. We start with a review of prices over the past couple of months and a look at the key drivers behind the price spike in January. In considering how the surge in European demand was met we look at the key sources of supply, with a focus on the LNG market. This then leads to a discussion about the new sources of LNG supply that are set to become available over the next twelve months and what this might mean for the European gas market as it seeks to refill storage that has been heavily depleted over the past 3-4 months. We consider what the impact of Asian demand could be on the availability of supply to Europe, consider the main market risks over the next 12 months and conclude with some thoughts on the price outlook through the remainder of 2026 and into the first quarter of 2027.

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China successfully navigated a difficult year in 2025, just hitting its official growth target despite trade wars and the country’s ongoing real estate slowdown. The country’s leadership is deep in the process of developing its next five-year plan, which is expected to focus on high technology and industrial upgrading, continuing recent policy themes rather than introducing major structural reforms. Meanwhile, policy makers are seeking to combat involution while boosting exports to ensure that the ‘New Three’ industries (solar, batteries, electric vehicles) remain a growth driver. All while maintaining energy security in the face of rising renewables and the risks of external conflicts. In this podcast, Michal Meidan and Anders Hove discuss the latest developments in China’s energy picture, including markets, policy and geopolitics. Key topics include the impact of Venezuela on China’s oil sector, the need for power market reforms to combat overcapacity in coal, the implications of rising renewables and coal on gas-fired power, and the rise of EV heavy trucks and whether they pose a threat for future LNG use in transport. Most importantly, they address the key things to watch in the coming 15th Five-Year Plan.

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In this latest OIES podcast, from the Gas Programme, James Henderson talks to Katja Yafimava about her recent paper on the updated EU regulation covering gas storage. Over the course of 2022 the EU adopted a significant amount of ‘emergency’ legislation to address the consequences of the energy crisis, and a major plank of it was the Gas Storage Regulation which obliged Member States to fill their storage to at least 90 per cent of capacity by 1 November. However, as the crisis has eased the relevance of this rule has been questioned and it has even been accused of distorting the gas market. The regulation expired at the end of 2025, and an EC proposal to extend it to 2027 was met with significant opposition from several Member States and market players due to concerns that the preservation of both final and intermediary targets for filling storage would result in higher gas prices. As a result, both the European Council and the Parliament made significant changes to the proposal. This podcast  provides an overview of the key provisions of the original Storage Regulation, the EC recommendation and a proposal for an extension, the Council and the Parliament positions, as well as the revised Regulation, with a view to determining the revised Regulation’s storage filling obligations and their impact on market functioning during 2025-27 and the role of the revised Regulation in shaping the ongoing revision process of the EU security of supply framework.

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In this latest OIES podcast James Henderson talks to Aliaksei Patonia and Henry Rushton about their latest paper entitled “Bankability of Hydrogen Projects: Key Risks, Financing Challenges and Mitigation Solutions.” The discussion ranges from an initial analysis of why hydrogen projects have failed to reach the scale that was anticipated a few years ago to questions around what banks are looking for as they assess the lending opportunities in the sector. While technology does not appear to be the main constraint, it is clear that costs have not fallen far enough yet to avoid the need for policy support, which continues to be a significant risk. In addition, the need for long-term offtake contracts, in the absence of a liquid hydrogen market, is also critical, and the podcast assesses who the natural early buyers of hydrogen are and what is their willingness to sign up for 15 year contracts that are seen as the minimum requirement. Finally, the authors discuss the type of policy initiatives which they regard as the key to the success of the hydrogen industry over the next decade.

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In this latest OIES podcast, James Henderson speaks with Maria Olczak about her recent research on biomethane. Combined European biogas and biomethane production has grown by 34% over the past decade, reaching around 232 TWh (22 bcm) in 2024. In the podcast, they explain the difference between biogas and biomethane, review current production levels in Europe, and discuss why the EU is unlikely to meet the REPowerEU target of 35 bcm of biomethane by 2030.

The discussion also explores the sources of growing market optimism, particularly in the transport sector, where demand is increasingly driven by quota obligations and new EU regulations, such as FuelEU Maritime targeting shipping sector. We look at how these demand-side instruments are shaping prices and investment signals, and assess whether this momentum is sustainable.

Finally, the podcast examines the two competing growth models emerging in Europe’s biomethane sector – a subsidy-driven, producer-focused approach and a market-driven, buyer-led model – and the regulatory tensions they create. We conclude by identifying the key policy and market design issues that will need to be resolved if biomethane is to scale up effectively and integrate into the European gas market.

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In this OIES podcast, Head of Carbon Management Research Hasan Muslemani speaks to Jazmin Mota about avoided emissions and their role in shaping credible, forward-looking climate strategies. The discussion defines avoided emissions as a comparative, system-level concept that estimates how much lower emissions could be relative to a realistic business-as-usual baseline, rather than emissions a company directly produces or offsets. The podcast clarifies how avoided emissions differ from reductions, removals, and offsets, positioning them as a measure of influence on wider systems rather than responsibility for past emissions. Using examples from energy and transport, the podcast shows how traditional carbon accounting can overlook the real climate value of solutions that enable others to emit less. It concludes by framing avoided emissions as a strategic decision-support tool that, when used transparently, can complement Scopes 1–3 accounting and help prioritise actions that genuinely shift emissions trajectories.

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The recent events in Venezuela have been sending shock waves across the globe and energy markets. In this podcast, Bassam Fattouh (Director of OIES) talks to Michal Meidan (Head of China Energy Research Programme at OIES) and Paul Horsnell (Chairman of Board of Governors of OIES) about the repercussions on energy markets and beyond. The discussion focused on whether recent U.S. actions toward Venezuela are truly about oil or much broader even as U.S. rhetoric continues to emphasize the control over the country’s large oil reserves and its oil trade. They explored how energy considerations intersect with strategic concerns, particularly U.S. efforts to prevent rivals, most notably China, from deepening their foothold in Venezuela’s oil sector and to what extent the current events would harm China’s oil interests. The conversation also assessed short-term oil market implications and debated whether Venezuela could meaningfully boost output post-2026 despite legal, fiscal, institutional, and political hurdles, and identified key signposts to watch over the next year to gauge whether these events could shift the broader oil market narrative away from expectations of large surplus.

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