The petroleum industry faces price volatility, political uncertainty, increasingly stringent environmental constraints, risky investment prospects, and shifts in industry structure and participation. Demand growth, new technologies, and the convergence of petroleum, natural gas, and electric power markets create new threats and expand opportunities. Government and industry interactions, legal and regulatory frameworks, financial transactions, and risk/allocation/bearing continue to become more complex.
Environmental requirements on fuels and refineries also raise complex supply adequacy and investment risk issues. Industry consolidation and reserve asset trading, competition from national oil companies (NOCs) or “resource nationalism,” and the emergence of large independent refiners and hyper-marketers have substantially altered the global competitive climate.
Members of The Brattle Group help clients operate effectively in this dynamic environment. Our experience in the crude oil and petroleum products markets spans the entire range of economic, financial, and regulatory issues central not only to the market’s current state but also to its ongoing development. Our engagements have encompassed virtually all segments of the industry: exploration and production, marine and pipeline transportation, storage, refining, and wholesale and retail distribution.
We have experience in contract performance, reliability and damages evaluations, market analyses, corporate strategy and risk assessments, royalty disputes, antitrust and market power reviews, public policy and regulatory assistance, financial modeling and economic analysis, and asset valuation. We also have consulted in matters involving petroleum futures and derivatives, trading, and related accounting and valuation practices. Our engagements have taken the form of private consultations and reports, expert testimony before regulatory commissions and the U.S. Congress, litigation support in civil trials, and public participation in key policy debates.
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