Event overview

BloombergNEF Partnership

On Tuesday, June 7th, Dynamo Energy Hub partnered with BloombergNEF on the first inaugural Sustainable Commodities Forum. BloombergNEF began 20 years ago in London as a strategic research provider and continues operating today as a global team studying energy, finance, and emerging technology.

2022 Sustainable Commodities Forum

BloombergNEF’s Brent Smelter kicked off the forum with introduction from Shira Guedalia, also from BloombergNEF. He noted that sustainable commodities play an increasingly important role in the transition to a low carbon economy, particularly as ESG regulations become more strict. Over the evening, the Forum’s speakers shared commodity markets trends alongside the growing global focus on net-zero energy targets. Energy security, rising oil and gas prices, innovating across sector expertise to reduce emissions, and climatetech trends were all featured in the evening’s conversation.

Commodity Supercycles & Net-Zero Targets

Ashish Sethia, Global Head of Commodities, Energy & Environmental Markets at BloombergNEF began by sharing his research on the rise of two megatrends in the capital markets that relate to the energy industry. First, he addressed the Commodity Supercycle, which he defined as a period of approximately 10 years when commodity prices continue to rise quickly. In a supercycle, high commodity prices are caused by an increase in growth and demand, alongside a lack of investment in the supply side. This comes following 2 years of low investment in natural resources, and inflation at a 20-year high. We see the impact of the supercycle in renewable energy as well. Although the cost of renewable energy development has come down in recent years, capital expenditures for solar and wind energy projects are 10-15% higher than last year due to the increased price of metals.

The second major trend is the increased focus on Net-zero targets. Today, 90% of countries have committed to net-zero targets, and in order to achieve this goal, he shows three projected scenarios:

What happens when net zero goals align with a commodity supercycle? Ashish spoke to how new, sustainable commodities are expected to emerge in the next 2-3 decades. Electricity markets may triple in size globally should the first ‘Green scenario’ become the path to net-zero. If net-zero targets are not met, electricity markets are still expected to double their current size.

Watch Ashish’s presentation for more details.

Energy Security with Net-zero targets

Dan Pickering, Founder of the research and consulting firm Pickering Energy Partners, focused on the strategic question of energy security in global markets following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. This sudden dramatic shift also comes at a time when supply chains are still affected by the pandemic. Russia produces about 10% of the total global daily consumption (100 million barrels/day) and provides almost half the natural gas to Europe. If we want trustworthy barrels from partners that follow a rule of law, he stressed that countries need to consider their own, their neighbors’ and OPEC’s production before looking to ‘bad actors’ to meet their energy needs. “Energy Security is structural, not cyclical,” he highlighted.

Pickering projects that oil prices will remain at over $80 per barrel for the next 5 years unless the economy reverts to a recession. The net-zero megatrend, with 90% of governments maintaining a net-zero target and over 50% of S&P 500 companies pledging net-zero, demonstrates that institutional investors are committed to decarbonization. Consequently, in the years ahead, he expects the market will “spend trillions in transitioning to decarbonize, and trillions will be made in oil and gas as its happening.”

A New Partnership to reduce emissions while delivering energy

In this case study, Williams developed a partnership with Context Labs, Salantis, and Encino to create a vertically integrated solution to reduce methane emissions on their path to net-zero.

The team was challenged to measure and capture fugitive methane, ensuring it remains in pipes and doesn’t dissipate into the atmosphere during delivery. To collect this data, they worked with sensor providers Salentis and Encino to employ a suite of sensors to accurately measure methane. Encinco provided satellite technology for high resolution imaging to track methane and GHG emissions that can be difficult to spot in the field. Context Labs, a leading data management specialist in decarbonization, was able process large volumes of data to provide a clear understanding of fugitive emissions. Working with operators, the team devised a system to simplify the problem into one metric – creating a legible and accurate digital representation of the problem. This allowed Williams to get the data easily in the hands of decisionmakers and manage their assets better by investing in new technologies.

Nakul Nair of BloombergNEF, Matthew Berchtold of Context Labs, Aitor Munoz of Satlantis, Joe Etheridge of Encino, and Angela John of New Energy Ventures at Williams

Fireside Chat with Kristin Barbato and Nathan Bullard

To conclude, Dynamo President and Co-Founder, Kristin Barbato and Nathaniel Bullard, BloombergNEF’s Chief Content Officer, sat down to discuss the state of climatetech in our current market. With interest rates rising and venture capital drying up, climatetech startups are challenged to focus on viable business models and more clearly define their value offering more quickly than over the past two years. Barbato highlighted that in the near term, there’s an urgent need for better collaboration models. “We believe energy innovation work can’t be done alone, and the last two years have shown that we need adaptive ways to work. At Dynamo, we are creating a platform to work in a flexible, collaborative, and interconnected way that supports the future of work in the energy sector.” As each region has its own energy sector ecosystem, Dynamo has developed a network of regional hubs to support cross-disciplinary and collaborative working models.

Bullard also believes the energy sector is spending “too much time focused on supply chains and not enough on value chains. We’re talking too much about Total Addressable Market, and not enough about Product-Market fit.” They both agree that commodities will continue to be an important focus in the transition to a low-carbon economy, including upstream mining and refining. Watch the full fireside chat for more insights.

Agenda

4:00PM | Registration

4:30PM | Opening Remarks

Kristin Barbato, President & Co-Founder, Dynamo Energy Hub
Brent Smelter, Head of Commercial, Western US/Canada, BloombergNEF
Shira Guedalia, Senior Account Manager, BloombergNEF

4:40PM | Sustainable Commodities: Where Net-Zero Meets the Supercycle

89% of global CO2 emissions are now covered by countries with net-zero targets or ambitions. Many in capital markets are shying away from investing in firms or fuels seen non-complaint to these targets. Others say that a ‘crisis of molecules’ has emerged due to years of under investment in most commodities, stoking inflation and a possible global recession. Join us to hear about BNEF’s views on achieving the balance in allocating capital between commodities that sit on either side of the net-zero argument.

Ashish Sethia, Global Head of Commodities, Energy & Environmental Markets, BloombergNEF

5:00PM | The Push-Pull of Energy Security and Net Zero Ambitions

The Russia/Ukraine conflict and growing desire for Energy Security throughout Europe and the United States has created a philosophical and practical challenge around NetZero ambitions. Must we sacrifice one to achieve the other? Or can we have both? We’ll address the issue through the lens of traditional energy players and how they are adapting, reacting and thinking during these tumultuous times.

Dan Pickering, Founder, CIO, Pickering Energy Partners

5:20PM | Teamwork makes the Net-Zero Dream Work: Creating Differentiated Commodities

As decarbonization becomes a central theme for the US oil and gas industry, so to do opportunities for creating effective and mutually beneficial partnerships. The Williams-Context Labs-Encino-Satlantis tie up uses Decarbonization-as-a-Service to make a significant and timely impact in reducing methane emissions for one of the largest handlers of natural gas. But how did this partnership come to be? What were the biggest challenges it has faced? What is the commercial opportunity in the continuous monitoring of emissions? Can the technology be applied across the commodity spectrum and potentially beyond? what does the marketplace look like for differentiated sustainable commodity products?

Nakul Nair, Senior Gas Associate, BloombergNEF
Angela John, Director of Innovation, New Energy Ventures, Williams
Joe Etheridge, Chief Technology Officer, Encino
Matt Berchtold, Vice President & General Manager, Context Labs
Aitor Morinigo, Executive Vice President, Satlantis

6:00PM | Fireside Chat: Yesterday’s Solutions and Tomorrow’s Problems

The global energy system is in the midst a profound reorganization, driven by supply and demand, supply chain pressures, emissions targets, and the efforts to reach net zero emissions by mid-century. That requires building today for impact tomorrow, and it involves choices and priorities at the national and system level. In every energy sector transformation in history, positive decisions made in one era become negative outcomes in another era. How can building in today’s energy system best prepare us for tomorrow – and break out of the pattern of yesterday’s solutions becoming tomorrow’s problems.

Nat Bullard, Chief Content Officer, BloombergNEF
Kristin Barbato, President & Co-Founder, Dynamo Energy Hub

6:30PM | Cocktail Reception

Event Speakers

Kristin Barbato

Kristin has 25 years in energy and sustainability spanning utilities, government, and energy services, and now leverages this experience successfully as an entrepreneur. She founded Build Edison to accelerate commercialization of innovative energy solutions and as Co-founder and President of Dynamo Energy Hub, she is creating the new platform to connect energy transition leaders and innovators across the world. Kristin previously served as the Chief Energy Management Officer at the City of New York, the largest municipal energy operation in the US, VP of Customer Energy Solutions at NYPA, and other utility and corporate executive roles.

Brent Smelter 

Brent is a strategic partner supporting the energy industry, capital markets community and government entities across the US & Canada as they work on the shift towards a lower carbon economy. He specialize sin working with oil & gas, chemical, power & utility and industrial companies and their ecosystem of EPC’s, OEM’s and service providers. This includes supporting investment banks, asset managers, private equity groups and venture capital investors working in commodities, clean energy and climate tech related opportunities. He helps to build strategic relationships and partnerships for his clients, connecting dots across the evolving global energy and sustainability landscape. His team’s mission is to generate opportunities for their clients while navigating change and potential challenges associated with the energy transition.

Shira Guedalia

Shira manages Energy Corporate accounts in Texas and Oklahoma at Bloomberg L.P. She assists executives and professionals in marketing, strategy, treasury, investor relations and procurement to streamline their processes and make better informed business decisions. Shira specializes in foreign exchange and commodities – Energy, Metals, and Agriculture, with a passion for sustainability and ESG.

Ashish Sethia

Ashish leads a global group of energy, commodities and technology sector experts analyzing net-zero emissions pathways. He works extensively with CXOs & policy makers to decipher the inter-dependencies between various components of the energy transition, to facilitate strategic decision-making. His team analyses asset valuations and investments, financing and contractual structures, technology evolution, policy developments and demand-supply drivers in power, natural gas & LNG, oil & petrochemicals, metals & mining and carbon markets. In his previous role at BloombergNEF in Singapore, he was the Head of Asia Pacific Research where he also analyzed and advised on clean energy, battery storage, sustainable finance and mobility sectors.

Dan Pickering 

Dan is the Chief Investment Officer at Pickering Energy Partners (PEP). PEP manages client assets via energy strategies focused primarily on public markets and private equity. Prior to PEP, he served as the President of Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co., and Chief Investment Officer of TPH Investment Management. He has spent 26 years as an Energy Portfolio Manager, Researcher, and Analyst, first at Fidelity Investments (where he managed ~$1 billion of energy sector funds), then as Head of Research at Simmons & Company and as the founding partner of Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. He currently serves as the Portfolio Manager of the PEP Energy Equity Opportunities Fund and on the Investment Committee of PEP’s energy co-investment and private equity strategies.

Angela John

Angela is Director of Innovation for New Energy Ventures at Williams where she is responsible for creating and implementing commercial strategies for low carbon energy solutions, along with developing new business that helps customers meet their emissions reductions goals. Her team is accountable for Williams’ Corporate Venture Capital program, partnerships with innovation labs and universities, and pursuing government funding and grants for new energies. Previously, Angela spent 27 years at BP including 19 years in the global supply and trading organization. In her last role, she focused on providing deal structures to support financing renewable and low carbon projects.

Nakul Nair

Nakul Nair covers the national U.S. gas and LNG market for BloombergNEF. He specializes in forecasting fundamentals and calculating forward-looking supply-demand balances. Nakul holds a BSc in Geophysics from Imperial College London and an MSc in Environmental Engineering from Columbia University.

Joe Etheridge

Joe is founder and Chief Technical Officer of Encino Environmental Services. He has 20 years of experience in environmental management for energy sector operations. As the Chief Technical Officer of Encino, he is responsible for to delivering turnkey compliance and project management services focusing on air quality, subsurface investigations, and special projects for the energy sector. Joe’s areas of expertise include regulatory applicability screening and permitting of new developments and acquisitions for exploration and production assets, corporate environmental audit lead for global management systems, and more.

Matt Berchtold 

Matt currently serves as the Director of Climate Impact Initiatives and Director of Product Development at Context Labs, a software technology company focused on enabling trust in data, including non-traditional financial or ESG data. At Context Labs, Matt oversees the company’s program of energy and climate-related projects and leads the strategic development of the company’s technology platform. Over the past 15 years, Matt has held wide-ranging roles across the energy sector spanning upstream and downstream oil & gas and renewable energy, in functions bridging engineering, operations, project management, and finance/investment banking.

Nat Bullard

Nat is chief content officer for BloombergNEF, Bloomberg’s primary research service on energy, transportation, commodities, and technology. He is also a contributor to Bloomberg Green, Bloomberg Opinion, and Bloomberg Markets, where he writes frequently on energy, transport, technology, and finance. Bullard has held a number of positions in his 11 years with Bloomberg. He was previously global head of executive insights, analyzing energy transitions and technologies; content director for Bloomberg New Energy Finance; and lead analyst for the North American new energy market. Bullard is a member of the Climate-Related Market Risk Subcommittee of the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Market Risk Advisory Committee, since November 2019.