Insights
Notes from the desk.
What we are seeing in the market, written by the partners engaged in it day to day. Matt Boardman on energy and commodities trading, Andy Jenkins on operators, EPC and energy infrastructure.
Andy's Ground Truth
Energy Infrastructure
Oil and gas, EPC, project delivery and the energy transition. Written by Andy Jenkins.
Two in every three, just to stand still. The technical authority problem nobody schedules.
By 2035, two out of every three new hires across the energy sector will be needed just to replace people who are retiring. The scarce seat is the technical authority, and an organisation's willingness to let someone sign takes years to build.
Read → 11 August 2026Announced is not delivered. The leadership constraint on Asia's gas build-out.
Southeast Asia has more than 100 gigawatts of gas-fired power in development. What separates the projects that get built from the ones quietly removed from a slide is far less often the geology or the financing than it is a small number of people.
Read → 30 June 2026The geography still drives the search
African energy mandates have traditionally been routed through European search networks. But the capital, the operating businesses and the senior decision-makers are increasingly Asian, and a search starting from London is starting from the wrong end.
Read →Matt's Market Rhumblings
Energy & Commodities
Trading and commercial functions, the desks and the roles around them. Written by Matt Boardman.
Thought diversity on a desk is a risk position, not a virtue
Every trading house runs the same graduate specification, against the same shortlists, competing with investment banks and technology firms that carry a stronger campus brand and a bigger budget. The pool everyone announced they were opening is the one nobody is actually covering.
Read → 4 August 2026From pyramid to diamond, and what automation cannot replicate
The junior base of the org chart is being removed a headcount at a time, and almost nobody is framing it as a decision. On a trading desk, where the shape was already close to a diamond, that lands as acceleration rather than disruption.
Read → 18 June 2026Commercial instinct used to be enough. It is not anymore.
The desks paying at the top of the market now want commercial instinct and quantitative literacy together, not one or the other. The searches taking longest are the ones where the brief was written for the trader of five years ago.
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