Is renewables trading The New New Thing? – part two
The excitement surrounding renewable energy trading and markets appears to have much in common with the dot-com bubble of the 1990s. This second instalment investigates the skills required of market participants
The energy trading community is certainly readying itself for the emergence of renewables markets. Existing markets in fossil fuels have come to be dominated by five large independent trading houses—Vitol, Trafigura, Glencore, Mercuria and Gunvor—along with the trading arms of large majors such as BP, Shell, Total and Equinor. These entities are serial succeeders in markets and are survivors through crises of war, financial market collapse, regulatory reach and extreme volatility. They are populated by some of the sharpest entrepreneurial and commercial minds—people who understand how to mine the opportunities presented by production, infrastructure, transportation and trading in energy. The
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