Meet the team

Paul Hickin, Editor-in-chief

Paul is editor-in-chief overseeing all content produced by Petroleum Economist, Hydrogen Economist and Carbon Economist. He has over two decades of experience across financial and commodity news and analysis. Paul has held senior editorial and management roles at S&P Global Platts, now Commodity Insights, Dow Jones Newswires and the Wall Street Journal. He has also worked as an economist.

Rhys Timson, Digital Content Manager

Rhys is a production journalist with more than 14 years of experience and joined PE Media Network in September 2020. He has previously worked for Interfax Global Energy Services and Hydrocarbon Engineering and LNG Industry magazines. He has an MA in English Literature from the University of York. 

Simon Ferrie, Editor

Simon is a London-based journalist and covers the Asia-Pacific and sub-Saharan African markets for Petroleum Economist. He has 13 years of experience reporting on a range of energy and commodity sectors, including heading up freight coverage at Argus Media.

Stuart Penson, Editor

Stuart is the editor for Hydrogen Economist and Carbon Economist based in London. He has previously held senior editorial and management roles at Reuters, Dow Jones and Argus Media in a 30-year career covering energy, commodities and financial markets. He specialises in hydrogen and renewables, with a particular focus on traded markets and government policy.

Seth Haskell, Analyst

Seth Haskell is a data researcher and analyst at our sister company Global Energy Infrastructure with experience researching and covering the gas, LNG and CCUS markets

Commercial Team

Sam Hassaniyeh, Subscription sales

Sam is the Subscription sales account manager overseeing Petroleum Economist, Hydrogen Economist and Carbon Economist with 20 years' experience working in the space and defence, education and consultancy sectors.

Rachel McGhie, Events manager

Rachel joined in 2017 as commercial manager, before progressing to lead the events department in early 2020. She is responsible for producing all live and virtual events, including researching and setting agendas to create valuable events for our senior-level audience; liaising with speakers and sponsors to build enable high quality discussion and debate; marketing and delegate acquisition; and coordinating the operational and logistical requirements for anything from a 40-minute webinar to a 3-day, multi-track hybrid conference.

Contributors

Clare Dunkley

Clare Dunkley is a London-based journalist with 20 years’ experience covering politics and business in the Middle East and North Africa, with a special focus on Gulf energy, for publications including Meed, Newsbase and the Economist Intelligence Unit. She has a BA from Oxford, an MA from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and comes from Aberdeen.

Anna Kachkova

Anna is a freelance writer based in Edinburgh, Scotland. She has over 12 years of experience covering the energy industry, including eight years as NewsBase's North America editor, five of which were spent in Houston, Texas. She specialises in covering energy in North America and Europe, as well as global unconventional oil and gas and LNG. Anna is a graduate of the University of St Andrews and also holds an MA from Stellenbosch University in South Africa.

Andrew Kemp

Andrew Kemp is a Melbourne-based freelance researcher and writer specialising in the Asia-Pacific energy sector since 2008. Known for in-depth subject matter analysis, Andrew delivers balanced, insightful narratives rooted in facts and figures. He currently focuses on Australia's energy security and strategy, bringing fresh perspectives to complex issues. His work has supported B2B publishers, law firms, investment houses and political risk advisory services.

Vincent Lauerman

Vincent is president of Geopolitics Central, a Calgary-based energy consultancy. He has spent the majority of his three-decade career working as a global energy analyst, specialising in oil markets. Vincent has also worked as a manager of energy economists, policy analysts and reporters, and as a private macro-speculator. He graduated with a Masters degree in Economics from the University of Alberta, and has worked in Calgary, New York and Tokyo.

Chris Stephen

Chris Stephen is a London-based journalist who covers oil and gas in North Africa and the Eastern Mediterranean. He was previously based in Tunisia and Libya, from where he reported on the 2011 Arab Spring revolution for media including The Guardian and Bloomberg.

Tom Young

Tom is a Bristol-based journalist who specialises in hydrogen, renewables and the transition to a low-carbon economy​. He has 15 years of experience covering the technology and energy industries, including eight years working across three desks at Argus Media.

 

Independent analysts

Neil Atkinson

Neil Atkinson has more than 40 years’ experience of oil and energy market analysis in the private and public sectors. Until 2021, he served as the head of the oil industry & markets division at the IEA and was responsible for the publication of the monthly Oil Market Report.

Adi Imsirovic

Adi Imsirovic has 35 years' experience in oil trading, holding a number of senior trading positions, including at Gazprom M&T and Texaco. Adi has taught economics at Surrey University and was a senior research fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies. Adi has a PhD in economics and a master’s in energy economics. He is the author of two books: Trading and Price Discovery for Crude Oils: Growth and Development of International Oil Markets, published by Palgrave in August 2021, and International Oil Markets in the Age of Climate Change, published by Palgrave in July 2024. Adi also edited  Brent Crude Oil: Genesis and Development of the World's Most Important Oil Benchmark, published by Palgrave in June 2023.

Ehsan ul-Haq

Ehsan ul-Haq is an independent energy analyst. He has around 30 years of experience in crude and refined product market pricing and fundamental analysis. He worked for Refinitiv (later LSEG) from 2018 until 2024. He has worked on a variety of reports about crude oil supply, oil stocks and prices. In addition, he has been responsible for looking at oil flows and the fundamentals behind them. Previously, Ehsan worked for 7 years for KBC Advanced Technologies in London and 11 years with JBC Energy in Vienna, Austria.

Clay Seigle

Clay Seigle is an experienced energy industry analyst with specialisation in market intelligence, global energy security and political risk. He most recently led the global oil advisory service at Rapidan Energy Group. Prior to Rapidan, Clay served in analytical and leadership roles at Vortexa, Genscape, Maxar, IHS, Enron and the US DOE. Clay has been a commentator on CNBC, CNN and Bloomberg. He holds a Master’s degree in international relations and economics from the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins. Clay serves on the board at the Houston Committee on Foreign Relations and is a past vice-president of the US Association for Energy Economics.

Danial Rahmat

Danial Rahmat is a senior energy security consultant from Iran, with expertise in energy and consultancy sectors. He has a background working in both government and private industries, and his skills include project coordination, oil and gas construction, and negotiations. Rahmat has held significant positions, such as serving as a senior energy advisor for South Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He is involved in analysing energy market trends, particularly Iran’s energy policies. Rahmat contributes to energy-focused publications and offers insights on geopolitical shifts in the Middle East.

Philip Verleger

Dr. Philip Verleger received his PhD in Economics from MIT in 1971. He has studied energy and financial markets since. In 2023, Dr. Verleger was named 'Energy Writer of the Year' along with his editor Kim Pederson. Previous winners of the award include Daniel Yergin (2000) and Vaclav Smil (2019).