Argus European Crude Conference

Mr. Haitham Al Ghais of Kuwait became Secretary General of OPEC on 1 August 2022. With more than 30 years of experience in the global energy industry, Mr. Al Ghais held key managerial positions in the petroleum industry in Kuwait, as well as internationally in Beijing and London. In addition to his role as a leading member of senior management of the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC), Mr. Al Ghais has represented Kuwait in multiple governing bodies at OPEC and other international institutions, such as the International Energy Forum (IEF) and the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies. Mr. Al Ghais also played a leading role in the historic Declaration of Cooperation between OPEC and non-OPEC oil-producing Countries. In 2017, he was appointed as the first Chairman of the Joint Technical Committee (JTC) facilitating the development of the methodology of monitoring conformity to the production adjustments. Read less

Patti Leigh is vice president of Crude Supply & Trading, based in Houston, Texas. She leads teams that manage the global supply of crude oil for Chevron’s refineries and market all crude oil from Upstream assets. The teams also work closely with Chevron Shipping, Pipeline & Power, and third parties to transport crudes for internal and external customers, and they are tightly integrated with Value Chain Optimization organizations in Downstream & Chemicals to capture opportunities across the entire crude-to-customer value chain. Before her current position, Patti was vice president of Products Supply & Trading, leading teams that manage global supply, trading, and logistics of a wide range of products, including feedstocks, fuels, biofuels, and refined products manufactured, distributed, and sold through Chevron’s refining and marketing system. She was previously vice president of Strategy & Commercial Services, and responsible for leading teams that develop and deploy Value Chain Optimization across the Upstream-Midstream value chains; leading large business development opportunities for S&T; managing IT, digital, strategy, and planning processes for S&T; and maintaining centers of excellence around corporate VCO processes and S&T economic analysis.Patti has held a variety of management positions in her more than 30 years with Chevron. She began her career with the company in 1990 as a petroleum engineer in Chevron Production Company. Patti graduated from Stanford University with a bachelor’s degree in petroleum engineering. Read less

Saad Rahim is Chief Economist at Trafigura, one of the world’s largest traders of oil, metals and other commodities. He is responsible for the company’s views on markets and macroeconomics, including the outlook for crude oil, oil products and metals markets, commodity prices, equity and credit markets, and political risk. Prior to joining Trafigura, Saad was Chief Economist at BG Group (now Shell), a major integrated oil and gas company, and prior to that Deputy Chief Economist at Chevron. Before joining Chevron, Saad was an international energy adviser with PFC Energy (now IHSMarkit). Saad received BA degrees in Economics and Political Science from Stanford University, and attended the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) for advanced degree work in Economics and Global Energy. Read less

Juan Carlos has more than 18 years of professional experience, with 12 years of commercial experience in the Americas and European energy value chains, with a strong focus in trading and commercial development in the upstream and downstream sectors including refining, logistics and supply. In 2005, he started his international career as a project engineer in the water treatment sector, working at Veolia Water in the US for six years. After finishing his MBA at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, he joined BP in 2012 and spent six years working in Chicago and London in the commercial space. After more than 14 years abroad, he decided to return to his native Colombia and joined Ecopetrol in 2018 as the global head of crude and carbon trading, leading the commercial strategy of Ecopetrol´s crude oil portfolio and commercial decarbonisation. Read less

Martijn Rats is Morgan Stanley’s Global Commodities Strategist, focusing primarily on oil and natural gas markets. Martijn, a managing director, also heads the European Energy team in Equity Research and has been ranked No.1 in the II/Extel survey for the last six years (2015-2020). In previous years, he covered the Oil Services sector and was rated No. 1 in the Extel survey in that category in 2010 and 2011. Martijn joined Morgan Stanley in 2002. Before that, he worked as a management consultant for OC&C Strategy Consultants in the Netherlands and the UK. He holds an MSc in physics from Delft University of Technology, an MSc in Finance from London Business School, and was a visiting scholar at Stanford University's Physics Department. Martijn is also a CFA charter holder. Read less

Marco joined Saras Group in 1993 after a brief experience at Olivetti, where he held a number of roles in the trading and financial field. He initially served as Corporate Finance Manager and then moved on to the role of Investor Relations Manager. He later took up the role of Supply and Trading Director, with responsibilities overarching the entire supply chain. In 2015, Marco became Saras Trading’s Chief Executive and three years later, he was appointed the company’s Chief Commercial Officer. Read less

Dr Paul Horsnell is the Global Head of Commodities Research for Standard Chartered Bank and is based in London. He joined Standard Chartered in 2013 and was previously Head of Commodities Research at Barclays, and Head of Energy Research at JPMorgan. Prior to becoming a financial analyst, he was a researcher at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies for 10 years, where he authored books on the Brent oil market (with Robert Mabro) and on Asian energy markets. Paul holds a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics and a Doctorate in Economics, both from Oxford University. He is a former Chairman of the British Institute of Energy Economics and a Praelector in Economics at Lincoln College, Oxford. Standard Chartered were awarded Commodities House of the Year 2020 by Energy Risk. Read less

As Vortexa’s chief economist, David Wech is contributing his extensive experience in research operations across strategy execution, product development, supply and demand modelling, competitive market positioning, commodity analysis and price forecasting. Before joining Vortexa, David worked for more than 18 years at JBC Energy, including eight years as managing director and seven years as the head of research. He is a graduate in economics from the University of Vienna. With great passion and dedication, David is distilling valuable insights from deep fundamental market analysis, making use of Vortexa’s leading coverage of crude, refined products and gas flows, crude inventory data and various freight services, allowing for global market coverage in close to real time. He regularly shares his unique market views and forward-looking perspectives in client and industry events, as well as with leading media outlets. Read less

Antonio Merino, Spanish, 56, is currently Chief Economist and Director of Repsol’s Economic Research Department. His main areas of expertise are Macroeconomic Analysis, the Spanish economy and the Oil and Gas markets. He graduated from the Madrid Autonomous University with a degree in Economics. He also holds an M.B.A. from the Spanish Business Management Institute (I.A.D.E.). In 1989, He served as the Spanish State Economist Official at the Spanish Ministry of Finance and the Treasury Department where he worked on economic policy, financial regulation and public debt management. In 1992, he joined the International Monetary Fund as the Advisor to Spain’s Executive Director. In the period 1995-99 he was Deputy Director of the Spanish Treasury, Alternate Member of The European Union Monetary Committee, and also Director of the Board of the European Investment Bank. He is a Member of The Energy Policy Club at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, member of the International Association of Energy Economists, member of the Spanish Group of Economic Forecasters and Peer Reviewer for the IEA publication World Energy Outlook. Read less

Euan Craik is Head of Oil and served on the board of directors of Argus Media Limited from 2005 until 2016. Since 2006, Euan has led the Argus management team in the Americas, expanding the reach of offices and breadth of services. He joined Argus in 1996, initially as a specialist on the Russian oil and gas industries. From 2000, Euan served as Argus’ Executive Editor, based in London, where he developed Argus’ LNG coverage and other areas of the global gas and power portfolio. In the early nineties, Euan worked in business journalism in Moscow, initially at the first post-Soviet business newspaper, Kommersant, then at the English-language Moscow Times. He was later awarded a fellowship at the Centre for Economic Performance of the London School of Economics. Read less

David has more than 30 years’ experience of working in energy markets. Prior to joining Argus, David was most recently chief economist at commodity trading company Gunvor. Before this, he managed the oil industry and markets division of the International Energy Agency and edited its influential monthly Oil Market Report. David has a master’s degree in energy policy and economics from Imperial College London. Read less

James is responsible for business development in southern Europe and Africa. James has been with the company since 2004 performing several editorial roles, including editing European electricity and emissions market publications. From 2007-10, he was the editor of the daily Argus Crude report, managing a global team of reporters and developing new crude price assessments. Prior to joining Argus, James worked as a teacher, speechwriter and journalist. He holds a bachelor’s degree in English and American literature from Manchester University and a master’s degree in international journalism from City University, London. Read less

Francis Osborne is Head of Forecasting in the Argus Consulting group, where his remit is to develop and co-ordinate the forecasting processes across a range of different commodities. Francis has over 30 years of experience of analysing and consulting on global oil and gas markets, and has worked for a number of leading consultancies. Prior to joining Argus, Francis was Head of Analytics at ICIS. He has also held positions with Saudi Petroleum Overseas, refining consultancy KBC Advanced Technologies and research firm Wood Mackenzie. Read less

Tom Reed joined Argus from UK broadcaster the BBC in 2003. He worked on Argus’ corporate and European products desks before moving to head Argus’ Asian market analysis of oil and generation fuels. As Vice-president of China crude and products he oversees Argus’ China oil pricing and analysis service. Read less