The week of Valentine’s Day is always an important day in the oil industry calendar, for it usually marks the beginning of International Petroleum Week (aka IP week) in London.
For those not in the know, it’s when the great and the good in oil trading gather in London to discuss, debate and party deliberate the market themes for the year ahead. The parties are usually lavish, and thrown together by the top oil industry names in town. There’s the Shell party, the Glencore party, the broker parties, the Platts party – to name just a few. Some are particularly impossible to enter for “outsiders” and all of them together assure trade is pretty thin throughout the week.
Organising International Petroleum Week is the Energy Institute. And this year’s agenda is no less extravagant than usual. This from the IP week website:
The key theme for IP Week 2009 will be the continued need for sustainable fossil fuel supplies and the efficiency of industry operations. Other challenges to be discussed are exploration, refining and the cost of alternative fuels and. The event will also discuss how demand affects the oil and gas industry and what the economics of security of supply are.
IP Week Lunch, The Dorchester, Tuesday 17 February Guest of honour and speaker: James Smith FEI, Chairman, Shell UK IP Week Dinner, Grosvenor House Hotel,
Wednesday 18 February — Guest of honour and speaker: Jim Mulva, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, ConocoPhillips
And here’s the agenda for the rest of the week.
It’s not really what happens at any of these formal sessions that counts, though. It’s the whispers behind the scenes at the invitation-only parties that do.
Last year’s shadow talk was focused on how oil would reach $130 by May. And it surely did just that.