On Friday, November 7, the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies (OIES) held its annual Oil Day, themed "Navigating Oil Narratives." The event was organized around three main sessions:

• Oil demand prospects in the context of an uncertain macroeconomic and geopolitical environment
• Supply outlooks, covering U.S. shale, OPEC+, and non-OPEC+ producers outside the United States
• Inventory dynamics, including traditional relationships such as inventories versus time spreads, and the influence of hedge funds and other non-commercial participants in oil markets

In this podcast, Bassam Fattouh and Paul Horsnell discuss the key insights and themes that emerged during OIES Oil Day, including revisions to demand prospects, the significance of rising crude on water, China's crude stock behaviour, the drivers behind OPEC+8 decision to unwind its voluntary cuts, the outlook for U.S. shale, the change in the traditional relationships between stocks and time spreads, and recent shifts in hedge fund strategies.

European policymakers face a dilemma regarding the entry of Chinese firms into the European wind market. Chinese turbines are cheaper than their Western competitors. Given the small number of players in the European market, Chinese manufacturers could provide a boost to the market and inject new competitive pressure.

Yet there are concerns that allowing Chinese OEMs into the offshore wind sector, either as developers of or investors in projects, or as equipment providers for European-led projects, could undermine European industry.

In addition to commercial threats, security concerns have also been raised by the UK, Germany, and Sweden: Will Chinese investments pose new security risks? Are Chinese OEMs a potential tool for economic coercion by Beijing? Do they pose a threat to energy security?

These and other issues are discussed in a recent paper from the Institute, 'Chinese participation in Europe's offshore wind sector: the good, the bad and the unknown'. In this new podcast from the China Energy Research Programme, James Henderson talks about these issues with Michal Meidan, director of the China programme, and Anders Hove, senior research fellow.

The podcast discusses what is known and unknown about the risks and benefits of China's entry into the European offshore wind industry, based on in-depth interviews with industry experts. The report finds an urgent need to identify and distinguish between risks associated with China-made components vs broader software connectivity and data risks. Meanwhile, on the cost front, low and falling prices for offshore wind in China may not translate directly to Europe.

In a new episode of the OIES podcast, host Hasan Muslemani speaks with Mathieu Lucquiaud and Ryan Cowden about their groundbreaking research on how electricity from natural gas can achieve lifecycle emissions comparable to renewables – if paired with carbon capture and cleaner production practices. The discussion unpacks how upstream methane and CO₂ emissions can be slashed through regulation and technology, how carbon capture rates above 98% are now technically and economically viable, and why lifecycle analysis is key to assessing true climate impact. The takeaway: natural gas with CCS, when done right, could complement renewables by providing reliable, low-carbon power, helping balance grids without compromising net-zero goals.

In this latest OIES podcast, from the Gas Programme, James Henderson talks to Mike Fulwood about the paper he has edited on the outlook for as demand in a world of gas prices at $6/mmbtu. The concept of the paper is based on the consensus view that the imminent wave of new LNG projects will cause an oversupply of gas in the market and lead to lower prices through the rest of this decade. A number of OIES research fellows have analysed what this might do to gas demand as consumers react to lower prices, and Mike has brought the results together in a paper which looks at the major markets that import LNG. The analysis starts with Europe, before moving onto to Asia (in particular China and India) and then to Africa and Central and South America. Overall, a lower gas price is seen as a providing a significant boost to gas demand, with the implication that the market may well balance at a price higher than $6.

In a new Oxford Institute for Energy Studies podcast, Hasan Muslemani speaks to Hannah Hauman, Global Head of Carbon Trading at Trafigura about Article 6 of the Paris Agreement and how the carbon market is unlocking scalable investment and trade.

The podcast describes the current market foundations and first trades, demand forecasts to 2030 based on existing regulation, and the key enablers to ensure supply can deliver against the ask: digital infrastructure, robust legal frameworks, and financial products to scale investment. Together, these steps can help carbon become a scalable, globally traded commodity that accelerates cross-border trade.

In this latest OIES podcast, from the Gas Programme, James Henderson talks to Jack Sharples and Anouk Honore about the latest Gas Quarterly and their thoughts on the current state of the global gas market. Jack opens the podcast with a review of the current market looking at price movements over the past three months and assessing the key geopolitical and commercial factors which have influenced the market over the past three months. Anouk picks up the story with a review of Europe gas demand, highlighting the increasing volatility of gas demand in the power sector, the struggle for demand recovery in the industrial sector and the impact of the weather on residential consumers. Finally, Jack reviews global LNG supply, the main shifts in demand in Asia and the impact on LNG availability to Europe. He then looks at how LNG fits into the overall European supply picture before concluding with a look at the storage market and what it implies for future prices.

In this latest episode of the OIES Electricity Programme podcast, Dimitra Apostolopoulou speaks with Sarah Montgomery, CEO and Co-Founder of Infyos, about the critical role of energy storage in achieving net zero. Building on Sarah's recent presentation at the OIES annual Energy Transition event in June, the conversation begins with a deep dive into how storage technologies fit within the broader strategy for delivering reliable, low-carbon electricity systems. Dimitra and Sarah discuss the scale of storage needed to meet decarbonisation targets and examine where deployment is accelerating most rapidly, from China and the United States to emerging regional markets. They unpack the economics of storage, exploring how projects generate revenue today, how business models may evolve amid price volatility, and how policy tools such as capacity markets or cap-and-floor schemes provide revenue stability. Beyond economics, the episode also highlights key bottlenecks, including grid infrastructure constraints, permitting delays, and the global competition for critical minerals that underpin battery supply chains. Sarah offers her perspective on how these challenges intersect with geopolitics and supply security, providing a view of what it will take to scale up energy storage in the years ahead.

In this latest OIES podcast from the Electricity Programme, Anders Hove talks to Dimitra Apostolopoulou about her latest paper co-authored with Rahmat Poudineh titled "The complex challenge of coordination in liberalised and carbon-constrained energy systems". The discussion highlights how the growing number of actors—from large transmission operators to prosumers with solar panels—and interdependencies between sectors make coordination, particularly under the demanding goals of decarbonisation, challenging. They discuss how coordination frictions arise from misaligned incentives, incomplete information, and market timing mismatches, as well as structural forces, such as digitalisation, extreme weather and cybersecurity. They explain why, given the complexity of the energy system, systemic risks and operational constraints associated with net zero, pure liberalisation and market signals cannot, by themselves, deliver efficient outcomes. Instead, the podcast stresses the need for a "hierarchy-anchored hybrid" governance model that balances authoritative oversight, market mechanisms, and network collaboration. For policymakers and regulators, the takeaway is that, at this stage of energy transition, reducing coordination failures may bring greater system benefits than solely focusing on cutting technology costs, and that stronger standards, synchronised market design, and clear net-zero pathways are essential for a secure, resilient, and sustainable energy transition.

In this podcast, Bassam Fattouh discusses with Paul Horsnell the latest developments in oil market and the outlook for the rest of this year and 2026. The podcast addresses some key questions shaping the oil market including:

• ⁠ ⁠What have been the impacts of the latest decisions by the eight OPEC+ countries on market dynamics, including perceptions of spare capacity?
• ⁠ ⁠What are the main reasons behind China's crude stocking, and what implications does it have for the global oil market?
• ⁠ ⁠What role does the geopolitical risk premium play in oil markets?
• ⁠ ⁠What does the shape of the forward curve reveal about oil market expectations?
• ⁠ ⁠Why is positioning by managed money in Brent and WTI different?
• ⁠ ⁠Why does the Brent price continue to be supported despite very bearish expectations?
• ⁠ ⁠What is the oil market outlook for Q4 2025 and 2026, and could there be a shift in the "oil glut" narrative? What factors could drive such a change?

In this latest OIES podcast, from the Hydrogen Programme, James Henderson talks to Aliaksei Patonia and Martin Lambert about two recent papers on the potential for developing natural and stimulated hydrogen. The podcast begins with an overview of the current state of the hydrogen market and the reasons behind the new interest in natural and stimulated hydrogen before moving on to discuss how natural hydrogen is found and developed. A discussion around the key challenges focuses on the one field put into production so far, in Mali, and we also explore the key drivers of the economics of hydrogen production. We move on to a description of the key technologies being used to develop stimulated hydrogen and the potential size of the resource base, before looking at the cost comparisons with blue and green hydrogen. We look at the possible environmental challenges before concluding with a summary of the outlook for natural and stimulated hydrogen and the timescale for seeing significant production.