The HC Commodities Podcast

For commodity trading professionals, it now seems obvious that large global asset-backed producers, refiners, miners and processors should have some form of trading capability. The risks alone of having a stranded product, an unfulfilled short or being exposed to wild price swings justify it - let alone the profits, the market access and intelligence they generate. This view rarely translates to the other divisions within the group, let alone the board and shareholders. Commercial teams are seen as risky, cash consumers and culturally suspicious and supposedly investors discount it.  In this two-part series we tackle why there is such a disconnect. Whether there is true value assigned by investors. And how senior commercial leaders can bridge the gap.

To read Christian's paper on the subject (available on October 7th) visit: https://www.oliverwyman.com/our-culture/our-people/christian-lins.html

For more on Enco Insights - our senior advisor network visit www.encoinsights.com

For related content and to find out more about HC Group, a search firm dedicated to the energy & commodities sector, visit https://www.hcgroup.global

Recorded at the Canadian Crude Oil Conference on September 16 in Lake Louise, Alberta, Paul Chapman interviews Adam Waterous on
the state of Canada's oil sector against a backdrop of worsening relations with the US and events in the Middle East. And what will it take to turn its enormous energy advantage into economic value. Adam is the founder, managing partner, and CEO of Watrous Energy Fund. Before founding Watrous Energy Fund in 2017, Adam spent more than two decades advising energy industry through Watrous & Co. and later Scotiabank. After spending much of his career advising others on transactions, Adam became an investor himself. Through Watrous Energy Fund, he and his team have built Strathcona Resources and Greenfire Resources into significant players in the Canadian energy industry. Adam brings a unique perspective to today's conversation: banker, deal maker, investor, and company builder. So what will it take to truly make Canada an energy superpower?

For related content and to find out more about HC Group, a search firm dedicated to the energy & commodities sector, visit https://www.hcgroup.global

Today, Doomberg returns to the show. We discuss cascading events in the Middle East, Ukraine and how the global hydrocarbon shortage has shifted from crude to refined products. As US lawmakers consider a diesel export ban, how bad could this get? Further, what does the crisis mean for the midterms, and is the AI power boom sustainable? Doomberg is an independent reader-supported publication primarily on Substack covering energy, finance, and geopolitics. It's one of the most widely read finance and energy newsletters on the platform, and their work sits at the intersection of energy, finance, commodities, and politics. He modulates his voice for anonymity. Read Doomberg's Escalation Clauses for free here:https://newsletter.doomberg.com/p/67e20820-4a1a-4f28-bf24-75679656ea79

For related content and to find out more about HC Group, a search firm dedicated to the energy & commodities sector, visit https://www.hcgroup.global

Data centers are the crucial rate limiting factor for the Hyperscaler's growth, and in turn, power supply is the rate limiting factor for those data centers. Who is financing that power infrastructure? How are they doing it? And indeed, what happens if there's a correction in the market or the flood of money leads to overcapacity? And what is the best analogy in historical capital cycles to examine this current infrastructure build out with? Our guest argues that it's the shale revolution. Joining me in my office in Houston is Hil Vaden, Executive Director over the Energy Capital Insights Group at S&P Global, who themselves are hosting the Financing US Power Conference on September the twenty-eighth through the thirtieth here in Houston, covering many of the topics we discuss here.

Sign ups and details here:

https://www.spglobal.com/energy/en/events/conferences/financing-us-power?

For related content and to find out more about HC Group, a search firm dedicated to the energy & commodities sector, visit https://www.hcgroup.global

Crises, outsized returns, accusations of environmental damage, missing cargoes and all the rest: corporate communications is done on hard mode in the commodities sector. Why is the sector still largely defined by anomalous events, gripping books and not its successes?
And why is it so important to get communications right, not just for companies and executive teams but for the sector as a whole? Especially as more and more large corporates are building commodity trading platforms. Why is it so hard to explain to investors and shareholders why trading matters?  Our guest is Will Medvei, Partner at Brunswick Group, a global communications agency where he leads the energy and resources practice.

www.hcgroup.global

https://www.brunswickgroup.com

For related content and to find out more about HC Group, a search firm dedicated to the energy & commodities sector, visit https://www.hcgroup.global

US Natural Gas is expected to do some heavy lifting in 2026 and beyond. Powering the huge growth in domestic data centers, filling European storage and bridging the gap presented by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and the damage wreaked on Qatar LNG. Europe is banking on a mild winter. Producers would appreciate a cold one in the US after multiple years of historically warm ones. And El Niño has introduced a new dimension of volatility. Joining us to discuss the US Natural Gas market and its consequence for the world is Emily Kyne , Vice President of Commodity Strategy and Trade Analytics at ARM Energy, a leader in natural gas transportation and management in North America..

For more on ARM Energy visit https://www.armenergy.com/

For more on HC Group visit www.hcgroup.global

For related content and to find out more about HC Group, a search firm dedicated to the energy & commodities sector, visit https://www.hcgroup.global

The sector  American renewables has undergone policy uncertainty, even whiplash. Challenging a sector already impacted by rising interest rates and infrastructure back-logs. Despite that, the renewable sector matches Europe in scale and continued to grow. Now, in a world of data centers and increasing power demand, is its fortune set to be reversed? Returning to the show, and this time in person, hence slightly different audio quality this time, is Julie McLaughlin, Managing Director and Partner at Alvarez & Marsal . Julie was last on the show in late 2023, calling for the imperative of capital discipline within the renewables sector, a call that turned out to be very prescient indeed. This time, Julie's sharing how the sector fared in the wake of that call and where it's headed.

For related content and to find out more about HC Group, a search firm dedicated to the energy & commodities sector, visit https://www.hcgroup.global

Ultimately, the US faces a stark binary choice: defeat Iran or retreat. Both carry profound implications for the post-war Bretton Woods order that has shaped modern economies and the commodity flows that sustain them. Indeed, it is precisely those commodity flows that both define this binary choice and make commitment to either path so difficult. Jeff Currie, Co-Founder of 1947 Oil & Gas, returns to the show to unpack this stark reality, its consequences for the world, and why he decided to launch an oil and gas company.

For related content and to find out more about HC Group, a search firm dedicated to the energy & commodities sector, visit https://www.hcgroup.global

Sand has transformed modern civilization. It is the ubiquitous commodity; in our infrastructure, in our industry and even in our personal care products.  Yet due to its characteristics, the supply chain is fragmented, disastrous for our environment and often corrupt. And by a tragic quirk of geometry, desert sand is unusable meaning we wreck our riverbeds and oceans to acquire it. In this episode, author and journalist Vince Beiser joins us to discuss sand and its role in the modern world. Vince is the author of The World in a Grain - the story of sand and how it transformed civilization. 

For related content and to find out more about HC Group, a search firm dedicated to the energy & commodities sector, visit https://www.hcgroup.global

Today we discuss El Niño - the dramatic, periodic, shift in climate patterns, that depending on intensity and duration can have profound impacts on our world, economies, and the commodities sector. And as of right now, we are back in an El Niño and it is expected to be one of the strongest on records. What are the known impacts? And how might the state of the world today, with the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, exacerbate those impacts? And what could happen if we hit Super El Niño territory? Our guest is Michael Ferrari, head of research at Moby, an AI native investment platform targeted to retail investors. Michael has previously been on the show and has a stellar career at the center of data, analytics, insight, and building platforms to support that in various roles in such companies as Coca-Cola, Syngenta, Engine No. Point72, and latterly at AlphaGeo.

For related content and to find out more about HC Group, a search firm dedicated to the energy & commodities sector, visit https://www.hcgroup.global