Petroleum Economist, the global energy magazine, and Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) will co-host the second annual Energy Strategy Forum at The Sheraton Hotel, Kuwait City on Tuesday, 26 January. National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) are gold sponsors and EQUATE are silver sponsors.

From the plunge in the oil price and the outlook for demand to geopolitical instability, the world’s energy sector faces new challenges and ever-rising uncertainty in 2016.

This VIP, invitation-only forum brings together a 300-strong international audience to hear expert views on what 2016 holds, and to discuss the possibility that the current forces of distribution will permanently change the way the global industry works.

The audience will include regional policy makers, national oil companies, international oil companies, financiers, investors and other key market players.

Eminent speakers at this second annual event will include:

• H.E. Mr Anas al- Saleh, Minister of Finance and Acting Minister of Oil, Kuwait
• H.E. Adel Abdul-Mahdi, Minister of Oil, Republic of Iraq
• Nizar Al-Adsani, Deputy Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, KPC
• Pradeep Handa, NBK General Manager, Foreign Corporate, Oil and Trade Finance Group
• Ali Rashid Al Jarwan, chief executive officer, Abu Dhabi Marine Operating Company
• Sharbini Suhaili, Vice President, Upstream International, PETRONAS

The stage is certainly set for an interesting discussion around the drivers of change and their likely effect on the regional and global sector.

Commenting on his expectations for the year ahead, panellist Robin Millis, chief executive officer of Qamar Energy and author of The Myth of the Oil Crisis, said, “For 2016, I expect continuing low oil prices, possibly with some recovery, with further pressure on prices as and when full Iranian production returns. Major oil exporters will continue with more aggressive budgetary measures and economic reform, including subsidy reductions. The small, but not negligible, risk does remain of a major geopolitical flare-up disrupting oil supplies.”

Tim Guinness, chairman and chief investment officer at Guinness Asset Management offered a slightly brighter outlook, predicting that oil price decline would end by April 2016 with a recovery to at least $60 per barrel by mid-2017.  As regards natural gas, he expects that, “2016 will finally see a contraction in US supply but the warm winter and high current working gas in storage will keep the Henry Hub gas price below $3/mcf during 2016 even despite US LNG exports starting. Europe and Asia gas prices will be increasingly priced off Henry Hub, as US and Australia LNG supply change the landscape and gradually link the world’s gas markets together.”

Nicolas Thévenot, head of corporate finance at APICORP, expects investment in the oil and gas industry to remain weak throughout the year, “Any gains in the oil prices in the course of 2016 will be limited as global oil demand growth will not be strong enough to balance the market and the level of crude stocks is high. On the financing side, the tightening of the monetary policy in the US will increase the cost of financing of projects.”

Participants at the second annual Kuwait energy strategy forum will be able to explore these issues and question these experts, as well as hearing directly from key regional policy makers.

A working agenda, which includes keynote addresses and topics for panel discussions, is available on the forum website: www.petroleum-economist.com/kuwait