Paul Newman

To celebrate its 15th anniversary this year, Energy Risk brings you interviews with the veterans who have helped shape today's energy markets. Paul Newman, oil derivatives pioneer and managing director of Icap Energy, discusses the past 15 years in energy markets with Roderick Bruce

What's the most important development you've seen?
The arrival of price transparency in OTC energy markets nearly twenty years ago. Although oil and products had been traded since time began, price transparency really only happened from around 1990. In part, transparency was driven by the second oil price shock in 1979, which led the dominant "Seven Sisters" oil majors to avoid long term fixed price contracts, and the spot market was born.

Is the oil market distorted by speculators?
No, it