Commodities Focus

Renewable energy continues to grow at a rapid pace in the power markets. Tom Tiernan, CEO of the American Wind Energy Association, talks with Manan Ajuha, senior director, North America power analytics, S&P Global Platts, about the economics of US offshore and onshore wind development, policy priorities, and the industry's challenges ahead.

After a historic collapse into negative territory, oil prices have rebounded on the backs of OPEC+ production cuts and the first glimmers of an economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. Will the upward trend be sustainable? S&P Global Platts news editors examine the latest market forecasts and the dynamics influencing the OPEC+ alliance's ability to bring down the global surplus of oil.

S&P Global Platts senior natural gas writer Harry Weber and S&P Global Market Intelligence midstream finance reporter Allison Good analyze the just-completed release of first-quarter earnings results by companies in the midstream sector. The rocky market is expected to continue in the months ahead due to the coronavirus pandemic, with impacts on supply, demand and prices. Companies are cutting spending and delaying projects to address the market turmoil.

As states begin to lift coronavirus pandemic stay-home orders and business start the process of reopening, power load is expected to slowly rebound from the increase in commercial demand. However, it could take some time as many states have a phased-in approach while many areas are still under local restrictions. By early May, 23 states had begun to lift stay-home orders with a handful of states expected to start the process by mid-May, but another handful of states still have no end date in sight.

Demand destruction from shutdowns designed to slow the spread of the coronavirus pandemic has put PVC, a construction staple, through the ringer in recent months. S&P Global Platts editors Kristen Hays, Ora Lazic and Fumiko Dobashi take a look at the situation in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

Battery technology for electric vehicles and energy storage will play an important part of the broader energy transition. Key topics include understanding cost trends and competitivenes of these technologies and challenges ahead for alternative storage technologies. Roman Kramarchuk, head of energy scenarios, policy and technolgy analytics at S&P Global Platts, talks with Christina Lampe-Onnerud, founder and CEO of Cadenza Innovation.

Will commodity markets ever be the same again? Global investor Jim Rogers, chairman of Beeland Interests Inc., talks to Sambit Mohanty, S&P Global Platts senior editor, to discuss what lies ahead for commodity markets, where the silver linings are as the coronavirus pandemic continues to trample markets, and the pains of recession.

It's been a chaotic couple of months for the global commodities markets, and the oil sector has been on the firing line of the price and demand collapse resulting from the coronavirus pandemic. Within days of lockdowns, expanding from Asia into Europe and the US, capex cuts were announced by oil and gas producers as they rapidly adjusted their spending plans to shore up budgets as prices slumped. The majority of oil majors have reported their first-quarter earnings, showing a partial snapshot of the pandemic's impact on commodity markets.

S&P Global Platts senior natural gas writer Harry Weber and S&P Global Platts Analytics head of gas and power Ira Joseph discuss the latest developments in the global LNG market as the weak price environment continues and project developers face challenges securing long-term contracts to finance new terminals. Amid supply and demand disruptions, decisions on new projects are being deferred to 2021 and perhaps beyond.

US natural gas prices have long been primarily determined by domestic supply and demand dynamics; however, with the rise of associated gas production in prolific basins like the Permian and the buildout of substantial LNG export capacity, the US natural gas market is experiencing unprecedented exposure to global market dynamics. S&P Global Platts senior natural gas pricing specialists Eric Janssen, Veda Chowdhury, and Kelsey Hallahan discuss the dynamics currently at play, with an eye to what's to come.