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    Latest Publications

    The Consilience Guide-set

    Consilience shares many years of front-line trading experience to provide these encyclopedic guides to the international crude oil and refined oil product trading markets.

     

    If you are looking for a step-by-step guide to a future career as an oil trader or, if you are a business executive or industry professional seeking an overview of how the market works, these focused oil trading books will help develop the knowledge of the reader, taking them through oil trading strategy and documentation in a format that is easy to follow using conceptual techniques that are unique to Consilience.

    Trading Crude Oil: The Consilience Guide

    It is a risk management manual that explains in detail the physical oil market internationally, the price formation process and the instruments available to manage price risk their benefits and their shortcomings.

     

    It provides a detailed description of how to implement physical oil cargo transactions, shipping and pipeline operations and refinery techniques.

     

    The book seeks to deploy the experience of its authors to meet the needs of the trading community and the much wider audience of professionals in industry, finance and the legal and regulatory sectors who may need an overview or deeper understanding of how trading works in practice.

    Trading Refined Oil Products: The Consilience Guide

    Trading Refined Oil Products: the Consilience Guide” is a companion volume to “Trading Crude Oil: the Consilience Guide”. Experienced crude traders know that to understand the value of the different types of crude oil that are produced around the world, they need to understand the shifting market for the products that can be manufactured from crude oil in the refining and blending processes.

     

    Experienced refined products traders think the crude guys have it easy. Crude traders more or less sell whatever comes out of the ground: the refined product traders know that to make a margin they have to meet strict product specifications that change with the seasons and with tightening environmental legislation.

     

    As for hedging, the crude traders complain about basis risk, which means they often have to hedge a cargo of “apples” with a financial instrument based on “oranges”. The products traders often have to hedge their “apples” with a financial instrument based on “artichokes”.

     

    This book explains the refining process, the regional markets for each of the main refined product groups and the speciality products that get traded worldwide, the meaning of the quality specifications, the transport of products and the establishment and risk management of refined oil product prices

    A splendid book from the UK’s leading expert on oil trading. Liz Bossley writes in a manner that will appeal to both industry experts and to those without prior subject knowledge.
    Colin Bryce
    Co-Chief of Commodities and Head of Europe Institutional Sales & Trading, Morgan Stanley.

     

    From the molecular structure of Paraffins through to hedging cargoes, this book must rank as one of the major treatise on understanding the supply chain and the complexities of oil trading in today’s markets.  It should become a standard reference work.
    Crispian McCredie
    Former Publisher and Managing Director, The Petroleum Economist.

     

    Consilience focuses a sometimes irreverent, but always thought provoking, lens on all aspects of oil trading and provides a valuable insight into the business.
    David Hobbs
    Head of Research at King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center.

     

    A readable and enjoyable book on a complex subject by someone who has been a pioneer in the world of oil trading from the late 70s and early 80s; a period that saw the entire world of oil trading transformed and created anew. Liz’s experience as  a trader, a thought leader, a corporate player and a financial player is what has allowed her to crystalize into a simple but thorough guide on oil trading that is understandable to all; professionals and interested non-professionals alike.
    Dr Joseph A. Stanislaw
    Independent Senior Advisor, Energy & Sustainability, Deloitte LLP, Co-author of ‘The Commanding Heights’ and Founder of the JA Stanislaw Group.

     

    The Consilience Guide to Trading Crude Oil provides a clear and comprehensive explanation of the otherwise obscure business of oil trading. It constitutes a basic reference for all those who need to understand how trading works, and especially for financial investors and market regulators. It also provides an excellent introduction and valuable reference for new recruits to the trading business. Bravo to Consilience for making this complex subject so easily understandable by a wide audience.
    John Gault
    President, John Gault S.A. Geneva
    Co-Director, Executive Master in Oil & Gas, The Graduate Institute, Geneva.

     

    Oil trading for the likes of me, grown up in the exploration & production business, has always seemed to be a most obscure business. This book, written by Liz Bossley, who I have known since she started work in 1978 at BNOC, is a masterpiece in unravelling the complexities and details of trading and making them easily understandable. Liz’s writing style is relaxed, which makes the book also a joy to read. Trading Oil, is indeed a book to be read by the professionals and laypeople alike. It can even be taken on holiday!
    Martin Lovegrove
    previously, Chief Executive, Harrison Lovegrove & Co.

    Previous Publications

    “Bossley’s Guide to Energy Conversions”

    A 100 page book, published by the Petroleum Economist, that offers readers a comprehensive guide to industry conversions, including coal, nuclear and emissions, with human scale analogies for non-specialist managers and advisors (March 2002).

    “The Hole in the Barrel”

    A 60,000 word study combining a policy overview of the Brent oil market and a detailed review of the tools deployed in the market. Published by Cambridge Energy Research Associates (CERA). The study correctly forecast the need for a change in the marker crude (December 2000).

    “Trading Natural Gas in the UK”

    A 20,000 word study reviewing the history of privatisation in the UK and the introduction of the Network code. Commissioned and published by Robert Mabro, Director of the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies (December 1999)