Ben Rich

What are the main challenges facing the energy industry today?

'Energy transition' was a fun cocktail topic but it is now creating real opportunity for shops like EDFT. Both sides of the transition require new commodity hedge solutions as liquidity has decreased. Oil and gas producers have lost hedge liquidity due to financial stress and ESG pressure while on the other end, renewable and gas-fired power generation is at true risk in their hedges from winter storm Uri.

Private capital wants more hedging to protect their investment and they are looking to commodity shops for risk management solutions. Oil and gas companies have begun to sell products to incentivise methane reduction in their production process and we are working on opportunities for 'responsible gas'. Wind farms need new hedges that remove the hourly risk of their intermittent generation and could require products similar to a natural gas first of month index. We are well positioned to face these challenges due to the synergies between our E&P hedging business and environmental products business, as well as wholesale power and gas.

Energy transition was a fun cocktail topic but it is now creating real opportunities for shops like EDFT.

What is the most interesting aspect of your job?

The challenging energy landscape is always bringing new and interesting problems to solve which benefit EDFT and our customers. Finding solutions, both internal and external, is what excites me about our job and there is rarely a dull week in the office.