Our consulting division builds on Argus’ key strengths – commodity markets expertise, international networks and trusted data – to help our clients realise opportunities. The global team works with corporates, lenders and investors, governments and regulatory bodies as well as professional service firms, offering tailor-made research to those seeking the highest quality market and technical insight, analysis and commentary. The consulting team is responsible for global fundamentals data and analytical tools, strategy reports and forward-looking price outlooks and leverages these in bespoke projects for clients.
We are experts in crude oil valuations, netbacks and price forecasting. Our team has been involved with projects looking at crude storage, transportation and refining.
We maintain extensive proprietary databases on refineries, fundamentals and historic data that enable us to meet the many needs of our clients. Much of our work focuses on how changes in the market – refining capacity or regulation – will impact supply/demand balances, trade flows and logistics requirements.
Argus Consulting Services is a leading provider of information and insight to the LPG industry. We offer data and analytical services and have significant experience with a wide range of clients – from financial institutions, producers, terminal and storage operators to downstream businesses.
Our services include tailor-made research projects, as well as a full range of strategy reports and monthly and quarterly outlooks, focusing on commodity nutrients from ammonia and urea, through rock and processed phosphates, potash and NPKs. We also publish reports on speciality fertilizers, such as micronutrients, water soluble and enhanced efficiency fertilizers. This allows us to provide a complete industry intelligence service to the fertilizer sector.
Argus Consulting Services offers data and analytics services relating to supply, demand and trade fundamentals and pricing for a range of chemicals including ethylene, propylene, butadiene, benzene, toluene, xylenes, hydrocarbon resins, methanol, MTBE and their derivatives. We also provide bespoke consulting projects for companies involved in chemical markets across the different value chains.
Argus Consulting Services produces short and long-term price outlooks for rare earths, tungsten and battery materials, as well as tailor-made studies for companies covering a broad range of topics from market fundamentals through price forecasting to technology assessment.
We have conducted many projects to support investment and planning decisions in the biomass and biofuels sectors. We closely monitor the regulations shaping the markets across the globe to guide our long-term industry forecasts.
Argus’ deep knowledge and understanding of how markets move and trade products are of particular value to midstream and freight companies. We help clients understand logistical constraints and opportunities, and how these impact product flows and prices.
Argus Consulting Services has carried out work across the coal production, transportation and distribution chain. We produce a monthly coal price forecast service and a long-term petroleum coke outlook focused on supply and demand fundamentals.
We have completed a range of projects on natural gas and LNG, including a number of studies that focused on small-scale developments in bunkering and power generation.
We analyse power markets across the world, and provide information on fossil fuel-fired generation as well as the growing renewables sector.
Argus Consulting Services provides bespoke research and analysis for clients in emissions trading and related environmental markets.
Client request: The client — a consortium of companies — was considering developing a new greenfield refinery and related petrochemical complex in north Africa. The purpose of the investment was to create an asset that would deliver attractive export revenue streams from petrochemical and refined products.
Our solution: Argus Consulting Services was commissioned to work with the client’s technical consultant to present a range of configuration options with the highest net present value over the lifetime of the project. The work included generating pricing cases across the full range of refined and petrochemical products, analysis of pricing sensitivities and identification of market opportunities.
Client request: A major European bank, acting as the lead for a consortium of lenders, required a market study for global fertilizers to form part of the due diligence process. The consortium was providing finance to a junior mining company looking to develop fertilizer deposits in Europe.
Our solution: Argus Consulting Services produced a report that provided an overview of the global fertilizer market and reviewed the marketing strategy of the mining company. This included in-depth analysis of the most promising markets and estimated netbacks for the mining company.
Client request: A Middle East refinery was developing a strategy to move its downstream operations to a more commercial and profit-focused basis. It had identified the option to sell equity to an international downstream player and was preparing a detailed technical and economic evaluation of its assets and operations.
Our solution: Argus Consulting Services was asked to develop a detailed view of the forward business environment across a wide range of refined and petrochemical products, develop price forecasts for both feedstock input and product output, and advise on future strategic options, including potential incremental investment opportunities.
Client request: An international operator of petroleum storage requested assistance in identifying new opportunities to expand throughput at two of its terminals in northwest Europe. While one of the client’s terminals was used as contango storage, leading to periods of low utilisation, the other was under threat because of changes in trade flows from the Baltic.
Our solution: Argus Consulting Services assessed existing product flows and identified new trade routes that could be served in order to create a more robust business model. The impact of Russia’s refinery upgrade programme and demand for product along competing routes, through Asia or the Black Sea for example, were critical to the client’s operating conditions. The work required a review of a number of refined products and feedstocks that were being stored or that could be stored in future, including crude, condensate, vacuum gasoil, fuel oil, gasoline, gasoil and naphtha.
Client request: A client needed to understand fully the current and future Renewable Volume Obligation (RVO) related markets in the US and their drivers, develop price forecasts and summarise market-related threats and opportunities.
Our solution: Argus Consulting Services analysed historical fundamentals to present evidence that the costs of refiner obligations under the US Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) were expressed in the prices of refiners’ on-road products. The research showed correlating evidence that the refinery included RVO costs — derived from Renewable Identification Numbers (RINs) prices — in their trading practices and gasoline and diesel prices.
Client request: A government agency providing oil companies with financial and technical assistance required weekly, monthly and periodic consultation and reporting on the LPG markets.
Our solution: Argus Consulting Services prepared reports covering numerous aspects of the market, including a summary of major price indexes, extensive reference charts of shipping costs, analysis of arbitrage opportunities and details of forward markets and their influence on physical LPG trading. An assessment of the price relationship between LPG and competing petrochemical feedstocks in the key regions was also provided.
| Course name | Argus Workshop - A Primer to Hydrogen: The Opportunity and the Challenges |
| Course date | September 2021 (exact date TBC) |
| Location | Virtual (Zoom) |
| Course Fees | USD 1,099 (Early bird offer, ends 18 May: USD 899) |
| Overview | This 2-day interactive virtual workshop will focus on dissecting the uncertainties that characterise this nascent industry on account of factors such as technology, government policy, willingness to pay for green hydrogen, and competing for low carbon alternatives. |
| More Info | Register here |
| Course name | REPI - Refinery Economics and Profit Improvement |
| Course date | TBC |
| Location | Dubai |
| Course Fees | USD 3,100 (USD 2,800 - early bird price) |
| Overview | The course is unique in that it provides insight into many aspects of operating a modern
refinery in the modern world, incorporating processing, optimisation, energy and oil loss
reduction, and knowledge management, all in the framework of a truly global business. The
course will highlight:
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| More Info | Find out more |
| Course name | Crude oil trading |
| Course date | TBC (2 days) |
| Location | Singapore |
| Course Fees | USD 2,199 (USD 1,999 - early bird price) |
| Overview | This intensive and highly interactive two-day course is designed to give delegates an introduction to crude trading in a safe environment. Delegates gain exposure, knowledge and understanding of the workings of the world of crude trading and is designed for both potential traders and logistics/ support staff. The course is a combination of lecture, syndicate work, case studies and a trading game. |
| More Info | Find out more |
| Course name | Crude oil trading, hedging and price risk management |
| Course date | TBC (4 days) |
| Location | Singapore |
| Course Fees | USD 3,688 |
| Overview |
This workshop is designed to give delegates an introduction to crude trading in a safe environment and to guide delegates through the complicated concept of hedging, allowing them to analyse and mitigate risk in the crude market. Includes specific and practical case studies: Participants will be guided through a combination of lecture, syndicate work, case studies and trading games to sharpen their ability to manage price risk and crude trading in this volatile market. |
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| Course name | Price risk management |
| Course date | TBC (3 days) |
| Location | Singapore |
| Course Fees | USD 2,999 |
| Overview | Price risk management, hedging, is designed to reduce the price risks associated with trading and introduce an element of certainty to cash flows and profit/loss. This interactive three-day course is designed for delegate with little knowledge of the concept of hedging, allowing them to identify price risk and learn how to manage that risk through different financial instruments. |
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| Course name | Generation fuels training programme |
| Course date | TBC (3 days) |
| Location | Singapore |
| Course Fees | TBC |
| Overview | The course covers the most dominant generation fuel, coal, its cleaner-burning challenger, natural gas, and the up-and-coming renewable baseload fuel, biomass. Course participants will gain insights into the market fundamentals for these three generation fuels, drivers of price formation, outlook for both prices and fundamentals, and the interplay of policy and regulations on the industry’s outlook. |
| More Info | Find out more |