Consulting projects

The client, a multinational oil and gas company, sought an analysis to support its understanding of the long-term outlook for the global biofuels markets, to assist in its low-carbon strategy planning. Our analysis included insight into the global legislative environment demand and supply outlook for feedstocks, long term pricing outlook and an assessment of the potential premium for biomethane over fossil gas.

A global storage terminal operator was considered acquiring a 100% stake in a South American LPG wholesaler. We provided support throughout the M&A process, including analysis of global and local fundamentals, freight and logistics, procurement costs, inputs to financial models and commentary on the target’s contractual liabilities.

A consortium of investment banks considering acquiring an equity stake in a European aviation fuel producer commissioned Argus for a Commercial Due Diligence project. Our advice included market supply and demand analysis, input and output price projections for the financial model, review of commercial contractual arrangements and red flag risk assessments.

The client, a large EPC contractor, was working on behalf of an Indian company considering an investment in green hydrogen and asked us to consider the market dynamics of the proposed products and make recommendations on the most desirable product pathways. We segmented demand, analysed market trends and forecast hydrogen demand, analysed costs for domestically-produced green hydrogen, green ammonia and e-methanol and benchmarked these against international players, making recommendations on cost competitiveness.

The client, a consortium of companies, was considering developing a new greenfield refinery and related petrochemical complex in North Africa. The investment aimed to create an asset that would deliver attractive export revenue streams from petrochemical and refined products. We were commissioned to work with the client’s technical consultant to present a range of configuration options with the highest net present value over the lifetime of the project. The work included generating pricing cases across the full range of refined and petrochemical products, analysis of pricing sensitivities and identifying market opportunities.

A major European bank, acting as the lead for a consortium of lenders, required a market study for global fertilizers to form part of the due diligence process. The consortium provided finance to a junior mining company looking to develop fertilizer deposits in Europe. We provided an overview of the global fertilizer market and reviewed the marketing strategy of the mining company. This included an in-depth analysis of the most promising markets and estimated netbacks for the mining company.

A Middle East refinery was developing a strategy to move its downstream operations to a more commercial and profit-focused basis. It had identified the option to sell equity to an international downstream player and was preparing a detailed technical and economic evaluation of its assets and operations. We were asked to develop a detailed view of the forward business environment across a wide range of refined and petrochemical products, develop price forecasts for feedstock input and product output and advise on future strategic options, including potential incremental investment opportunities.

An international operator of petroleum storage requested assistance in identifying new opportunities to expand throughput at two of its terminals in northwest Europe. While one of the client’s terminals was used as contango storage, leading to periods of low utilisation, the other was under threat because of changes in trade flows from the Baltic. We assessed existing product flows and identified new trade routes that could be served to create a more robust business model. The work required a review of several refined products and feedstocks that were being stored or that could be stored in future, including crude, condensate, vacuum gasoil, fuel oil, gasoline, gasoil and naphtha.

A government agency providing oil companies with financial and technical assistance required weekly, monthly and periodic consultation and reporting on the LPG markets. We prepared reports covering numerous aspects of the market, including a summary of significant price indexes, extensive reference charts of shipping costs, analysis of arbitrage opportunities and details of forward markets and their influence on physical LPG trading. An assessment of the price relationship between LPG and competing petrochemical feedstocks in the key regions was also provided.