Ahmed Mehdi

Visiting Research Fellow

Ahmed Mehdi is a Visiting Research Fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies (OIES). Ahmed’s work focuses on dynamics in the oil market (pricing, supply and refining) and the battery-to-electric vehicle supply chain (lithium and graphite markets).

Alongside his role at OIES, Ahmed serves as Managing Director at Renaissance Energy Advisors (REA), an energy research firm. He also serves as a Principal Advisor at Benchmark Minerals Intelligence, where he has worked with government teams, banks, energy companies and investors involved in the lithium-ion battery supply chain.

Ahmed previously acted as an advisor to BHP Petroleum and has spent over a decade working in the fields of corporate strategy, energy finance, and pricing. He regularly writes and comments on energy issues in the media, including the Financial Times, the New York Times, Bloomberg, S&P Global Platts, the Wall Street Journal, and the Middle East Economic Survey (MEES). He also serves as a Non-Resident Fellow at the Center on Global Energy Policy (CGEP) at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs.

He holds degrees from the University of Oxford (St Antony’s College) and University College London.

Contact

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                    [post_date] => 2024-02-14 11:56:58
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                    [post_content] => With the lithium-ion battery sector this year entering the terawatt era (Twh) – driven by demand from the Electric Vehicle (EV) and Battery Energy Storage Sector (BESS) – there remains little doubt over lithium’s central importance to the energy transition.

While there has been no shortage of analyses examining the challenges of scaling lithium supply to meet long-term net-zero targets, less discussed has been the role of pricing and its interaction with a more dynamic lithium market. After all, it is price signals which determine the efficient allocation of capital in any market, particularly in an immature one where China has an outsized role. The recent slump in lithium prices has triggered a range of questions in the market: how sustainable are current spot prices? Has lithium’s marginal cost of production become more dynamic compared to previous years? What next for lithium prices and pricing?

This Energy Insight sheds light on some key features of lithium’s evolving pricing landscape; the drivers of volatility in the market; and the implications ahead as lithium’s journey to market maturity continues apace.
                    [post_title] => Lithium price volatility: where next for the market?
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                    [post_content] => Oil has always assumed a special position within the energy complex. Oil is a global and mature market, fungible, with many interrelated physical and financial layers, diverse set of players both on the demand and the supply side and has dealt with many shocks in the past (geopolitical and weather-related outages and demand shocks). Nevertheless, 2022 generated new types of shocks and the oil market has not been immune from government interventions which added new layers of uncertainty. However, despite the severity of the shocks experienced in 2022, the oil market through its various layers and players has shown strong resilience and continues to perform its key functions of price discovery and redirecting crude and products in the face of a massive shock. These shifts in trade flows will accelerate and consolidate in 2023, with wide implications for the structure of the market, price discovery, geopolitical relations, and the dominance of the dollar in oil trade. However, this has come at a cost. The trade routes have become longer and the cost of re-optimizing trade flows has increased, the adjustment in price differentials is sharper, the markets have become more segmented and less transparent and new class of trading entities have emerged. Also, refineries are having to change their crude slates resulting at times in sub-optimal use of crudes and supply of products. Most importantly, the current crisis is causing increased government intervention in energy markets including oil markets as energy security, alongside reducing emissions, becomes a key driver of energy policy. These government interventions have not yet reached their peak and are unlikely to be reversed anytime soon and the full impacts of which will become more visible in 2023 and beyond.
                    [post_title] => Oil Markets in 2023: The Year of the Aftershocks
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                    [post_content] => 

After weeks of tensions, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered Russian troops to invade Ukraine, prompting an international sanctions response targeting Russia’s economy but not directly its oil supplies or energy payments. But as sanctions on Russia intensified and as financial institutions started to refuse financing Russia-related transactions, including opening letters of credit or clearing payments and as some companies became reluctant to purchase Russian crude, Brent on March 2 (the time of writing) was trading above $110 for the first time since 2014.

Looking forward the market focus should not only be on whether the oil sector will be directly targeted by sanctions, but also the crescendo effect of self-sanctioning along the oil supply chain all the way from marketing to financing to shipping. Fears over energy sanctions and the ambiguity over the banking sanctions have already seen companies avoid purchasing Russian barrels, pushing prices to new multiyear highs and shaving-off shock mitigation policies such as the SPR releases. Also, it has become clear that traders holding Russian crude on their books are struggling to clear cargoes and this has been reflected in widening differentials and rising shipping and insurance costs. 

The next stages for Russian crude supplies are highly uncertain but some possible impacts include:

- Massive shifts in trade flows and sharp adjustments in price differentials to reflect shifts in Russian crude exports. Particularly, there could be a greater re-redirection of flows from Europe to Asia, but there are limits to such re-direction and not all Urals previously destined to Europe will flow into Asia.

- Russian oil companies could offer sweeteners to buyers to make their barrels more attractive, for instance shifting cargoes from FOB to CFR basis. Also, in response to more extensive self-sanctioning, Urals and ESPO could be offered at discounts so large that cargoes would eventually clear, potentially as masked cargoes or via ship-to-ship transfers. But there are limits to this strategy given the large volumes of Russian exports and the intensification and widening of sanctions.

- Self-sanctioning escalates over the coming weeks leading to a reduction in Russian production and supply disruptions at a larger scale. 

In the current environment of ever rising tensions, one should also not also exclude the possibility that in an escalation situation where Russia struggles to clear its barrels, weaponizing energy becomes the next chapter in Russia’s ongoing standoff with the West. As these are still early days, a scenario in which Russian oil supplies get disrupted in a sudden manner should also be considered. This will exert significant pressure on both market balances and prices in the near-term and for most of 2022. In the short term, potential responses to ease the price pressure are likely to come from the supply side. The current plan of OPEC+ to return withheld supplies back to market, Iran fully returning to the market and non-OPEC production growth particularly in North America accelerating, these combined supply responses can help fill any potential supply gap. The planned SPR releases will offer little support to a potential shortfall. But in such scenario the demand responses will also play their role and become more visible beyond the near-term. In terms of products, the market and refiners appear less flexible faced with constraints both in terms of costs and feedstock availability. Also, the impacts of the current shock will extend beyond the short-term and beyond balances and prices. The recent crisis will elevate energy security (including oil security) in policy makers’ agenda with long-term consequences for governments’ energy policies including their energy transition.

[post_title] => Russia-Ukraine crisis: Implications for global oil markets [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => closed [ping_status] => closed [post_password] => [post_name] => russia-ukraine-crisis-implications-for-global-oil-markets [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2022-03-02 16:58:55 [post_modified_gmt] => 2022-03-02 16:58:55 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => https://www.oxfordenergy.org/?post_type=publications&p=44604 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => publications [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw ) [3] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 43742 [post_author] => 111 [post_date] => 2021-05-25 11:04:25 [post_date_gmt] => 2021-05-25 10:04:25 [post_content] => This issue of the Oxford Energy Forum is devoted to analysing the recent shifts in oil trade flows and the major developments in pricing benchmarks in Middle East crude and products markets. The region is experiencing a series of dramatic structural changes that are transforming crude and products flows, as well as leading to an increased focus on the price benchmarks used to underpin activity in the region. The Gulf countries traditionally exported crude oil, while also importing much of the refined products that they required. The construction of several major refineries around the Gulf has changed this model, turning the region into an exporter of refined products. This new focus on refined products in part reflects the increased domestic demand within the region, as local populations grow and as energy-intensive industries develop. Meanwhile, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on energy demand has weighed particularly heavily on the Gulf as one of the world’s major suppliers of hydrocarbons, exposing some of the cracks in existing oil benchmarks, oil price assessment processes, and the relationship between the different benchmarks. The pressures on governments and the region’s national oil companies to ensure they are maximizing their revenues from their crude oil and products exports is leading to a new focus on the trading activity and pricing mechanisms that underpin the Gulf’s exports, with recent months seeing some major changes—such as ADNOC removing destination restrictions on its crude grades and moving from a retroactive to a forward-pricing model. With the launch of the ICE Futures Abu Dhabi (IFAD), the region now has two exchanges (IFAD and the Dubai Mercantile Exchange (DME)) and two crude oil futures contracts, while the incumbent benchmark (Platts Dubai) continues to attract liquidity and remains dominant in pricing crude going out of the region. And the COVID-19 demand shock gave Shanghai International Energy Exchange (INE) oil futures contracts a boost, as excess supply of oil naturally gravitated to China, the biggest oil importing country in the world, increasing spot activity in delivered barrels into the country. As Middle East–Asia crude and products trade flows become more important over time, and as the role of Asia as the most important demand centre consolidates further, the role of Asian players in pricing crude and products will only increase and the desire to turn regional benchmarks into global ones will only intensify. But as trade flows between the Middle East and Asia consolidate, the nature of the relationship will continue to evolve, with consequences on the pricing of crude and products. While Asia will remain the main importer of Middle East crude, refiners in the Middle East and Asia will increasingly compete on products markets and petrochemicals, as both have very ambitious plans to expand refining capacity and integrate refining assets with petrochemicals. [post_title] => Oxford Energy Forum - Middle East Oil Pricing Systems in Flux - Issue 128 [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => closed [ping_status] => closed [post_password] => [post_name] => oxford-energy-forum-middle-east-oil-pricing-systems-in-flux-issue-128 [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2023-04-04 10:34:26 [post_modified_gmt] => 2023-04-04 09:34:26 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => https://www.oxfordenergy.org/?post_type=publications&p=43742 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => publications [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw ) [4] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 43647 [post_author] => 111 [post_date] => 2021-04-27 11:10:08 [post_date_gmt] => 2021-04-27 10:10:08 [post_content] => In November 2020, ahead of annual term contract negotiations, Iraq’s State Oil Marketing Organisation (SOMO) announced it would further split its crude streams from two into three by launching a new export grade: Basrah Medium. Having been launched in January 2021, what were the key drivers behind the move? What are the implications of the move for International Oil Companies (IOCs) who regularly lift Iraqi crude? How has the new grade been priced? This Comment provides a snapshot into the opaque world of Iraqi crude marketing and the key strategic challenges – and choices - ahead for OPEC’s second largest producer. [post_title] => The second split: Basrah Medium and the challenge of Iraqi crude quality [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => closed [ping_status] => closed [post_password] => [post_name] => the-second-split-basrah-medium-and-the-challenge-of-iraqi-crude-quality [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2021-04-27 11:10:08 [post_modified_gmt] => 2021-04-27 10:10:08 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => https://www.oxfordenergy.org/?post_type=publications&p=43647 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => publications [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw ) [5] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 43398 [post_author] => 111 [post_date] => 2021-02-08 11:29:58 [post_date_gmt] => 2021-02-08 11:29:58 [post_content] => Gathering momentum for the energy transition has sparked debate on what the energy map will look like in 30 years. For more than half a century now, access to oil and natural gas has been at the heart of the geopolitics of energy; but with renewable technologies set to dominate energy supply systems, relations between states will change, while economies and societies will undergo structural transformations. This issue of the Oxford Energy Forum discusses the drivers and main features of the ‘old’ and ‘new’ geopolitics of energy. It assesses the power shifts that are unfolding, the winners and losers—both countries and technologies—that are likely to emerge from this process, and the potential implications for global governance regimes. Our authors ask whether the prospects of peak oil demand will dim the geopolitical forces shaping producer–consumer relations and upend geopolitical arrangements which have been defining elements of regional power systems. They ask: who will lead the race for new technologies and supply chains? And how will US–China competition and coordination impact global efforts to meet the Paris climate goals? A thread running through this Forum is a warning against intellectual complacency. One key theme is that assumptions about the future geopolitical outlook of countries, regions, and trade relationships will hardly be guided by history, given the size and scope of the transformation. Demand-side policy and capital allocation shifts will create both challenges and opportunities for fossil fuel incumbents—a stark reminder that while some regions are moving more slowly, no region is standing still as the energy transition gathers pace. Similarly, identifying winners and losers is not as clear-cut as it seems, especially in light of concerns that the US is losing out in the race with the EU and China. The third theme serves as a stark reminder that the pathways to net zero will be neither linear nor uniform, especially in light of the falling costs of technologies. But the race for technological leadership and for control of the supply chains of new materials will become a key factor in the geopolitics of new energies. [post_title] => Oxford Energy Forum - The Geopolitics of Energy: Out with the Old and in with the New? - Issue 126 [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => closed [ping_status] => closed [post_password] => [post_name] => oxford-energy-forum-the-geopolitics-of-energy-out-with-the-old-and-in-with-the-new-issue-126 [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2023-04-04 10:37:14 [post_modified_gmt] => 2023-04-04 09:37:14 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => https://www.oxfordenergy.org/?post_type=publications&p=43398 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => publications [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw ) [6] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 39220 [post_author] => 111 [post_date] => 2020-07-08 11:08:13 [post_date_gmt] => 2020-07-08 10:08:13 [post_content] => Iraq is no stranger to oil price volatility or economic and political crisis. The country has faced the oil price crash of 2014, fought a costly, two-year war against ISIS, suffered growing electricity shortages, security threats, protests, (inter) party-political fragmentation and severe economic and financial constraints. Despite these multiple, concurrent hurdles, oil production has nearly doubled over the last decade. In this light, what makes this year's oil crisis so unique for Iraq? This Comment provides a forensic examination of the key challenges facing Iraq's oil and energy economy and how these issues are set to interact with oil and energy policy decision-making. The Comment considers the operational challenges of OPEC+ cuts, the negative cycle of lower oil prices on the country's economy and the long-term implications of the crisis on the country's oil and gas sector. [post_title] => Compounding crises: Iraq's oil and energy economy [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => closed [ping_status] => closed [post_password] => [post_name] => compounding-crises-iraqs-oil-and-energy-economy [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2020-07-08 11:08:13 [post_modified_gmt] => 2020-07-08 10:08:13 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => https://www.oxfordenergy.org/?post_type=publications&p=39220 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => publications [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw ) [7] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 38440 [post_author] => 111 [post_date] => 2020-06-09 12:24:54 [post_date_gmt] => 2020-06-09 11:24:54 [post_content] => Even before the arrival of Covid-19, the pricing mechanisms available for the multi-billion-dollar East of Suez crude trading market were already in flux. From Saudi Aramco’s decision to adjust its Asia pricing formulae in 2018 to Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) announcing the launch of a new crude futures contract (Murban futures) late last year – the Middle East-Asia crude pricing system has clearly grown in complexity, highlighting the importance of benchmarks as tools of price discovery. For all the key East of Suez oil pricing players – traders, oil companies, governments, and Price Reporting Agencies (PRAs) – the demand shock due to Covid-19 was the perfect stress test, as it unravelled the DNA of existing benchmarks. It is against this backdrop that this Comment examines how the region’s key benchmarks – Dubai Mercantile Exchange (DME) Oman futures and Platts Dubai/Oman – performed and whether or not they worked as tools of price discovery. While the oil market is now charting its route to recovery, the consequences of the crisis on the region’s pricing system will continue to reverberate for years to come. [post_title] => Middle East Benchmark Pricing and the Oil Crisis [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => closed [ping_status] => closed [post_password] => [post_name] => middle-east-benchmark-pricing-and-the-oil-crisis [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2020-06-09 17:36:37 [post_modified_gmt] => 2020-06-09 16:36:37 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => https://www.oxfordenergy.org/?post_type=publications&p=38440 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => publications [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw ) [8] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 34489 [post_author] => 111 [post_date] => 2020-01-13 10:36:29 [post_date_gmt] => 2020-01-13 10:36:29 [post_content] => With the market having shrugged off the latest escalation between the United States and Iran, some of the aftershocks of recent events have heightened the risk of future US-Iran rivalry playing out in Iraq - OPEC’s second largest producer and a key source of oil supply growth out to 2030. Next month’s decision by Washington as to whether or not to renew US sanctions waivers allowing Iraq to import Iranian gas volumes will provide clues as to whether recent events prove a geopolitical game-changer (or not) to Iraq’s oil (and energy) sector. As this comment explains, Iraq’s post 2009 oil production growth took place against the backdrop of major challenges (a difficult investment environment, fiscal crises, protests, and a volatile security and geopolitical environment). In this light, a sober assessment of Iraq’s oil outlook needs to consider how any structural shift to Iraq’s geopolitical position interacts with pre-existing challenges to the next chapter of production growth: deflationary forces in the oil market; the growing cost and complexity of upstream operations; the growing need for water to maintain and increase oil output; and the need to integrate upstream growth with midstream and downstream development. [post_title] => The Soleimani Effect: A Game-Changer for Iraqi Crude Dynamics? [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => closed [ping_status] => closed [post_password] => [post_name] => the-soleimani-effect-a-game-changer-for-iraqi-crude-dynamics [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2020-01-13 10:36:29 [post_modified_gmt] => 2020-01-13 10:36:29 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => https://www.oxfordenergy.org/?post_type=publications&p=34489 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => publications [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw ) [9] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 31931 [post_author] => 111 [post_date] => 2019-10-02 10:38:16 [post_date_gmt] => 2019-10-02 09:38:16 [post_content] => The need for a new marker for East of Suez crude oil pricing has dominated debate in oil trading circles over the past several years. The latest opening salvo has been launched by Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), currently in the process of laying out a roadmap to launch a light crude reference marker of its own – both to price its own exports and to develop a regional benchmark in the Middle East, to reflect shifting Asian fundamentals and shifts in global crude oil flows. Underpinning this ambition is the role of Murban – a light high-sulphur crude oil (40° API gravity and 0.7% sulphur) produced onshore in Abu Dhabi. What is driving the move? How has Middle East crude pricing evolved and is Murban a viable candidate for regional benchmark status? This Comment seeks to answer these questions and to examine the challenges and next steps required for ADNOC to promote the grade to benchmark status. As this Comment argues, the Middle East is not a region that changes its pricing system quickly: the road to establishing Murban as a viable benchmark is still long and many challenges lie ahead. Nevertheless, the desire to establish a Murban benchmark clearly shows that the pricing regimes in the Gulf and in Asia cannot be immune to the structural shift in trade flows and the rising power of Asia. Furthermore, if the Gulf producers want to avoid pricing power shifting to Asian consumers, they have no choice but to continue to innovate and offer attractive solutions to their key customers. [post_title] => Murban: A benchmark for the Middle East? [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => closed [ping_status] => closed [post_password] => [post_name] => murban-a-benchmark-for-the-middle-east [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2019-10-02 10:38:16 [post_modified_gmt] => 2019-10-02 09:38:16 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => https://www.oxfordenergy.org/?post_type=publications&p=31931 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => publications [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw ) [10] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 31246 [post_author] => 111 [post_date] => 2018-10-24 10:53:32 [post_date_gmt] => 2018-10-24 09:53:32 [post_content] => Iraq has been a key contributor to OPEC liquids growth, with IOCs in southern Iraq having added approximately 1.7–1.8 mb/d (million barrels per day) in the period 2011–16. With renewed focus on medium-heavy sour markets in light of OPEC output policy, geopolitical supply-side disruptions and Asian refining dynamics, Iraq’s future role in oil markets is of critical importance. This paper provides a comprehensive assessment of Iraq’s short-medium term production outlook by assessing the interplay between upstream, midstream and downstream trends.  This interplay will take place against the backdrop of Iraq’s changing crude quality, delays to increasing onshore storage and pumping capacity, the growing need for water for oil injection needs, and the growing requirement for Iraq to upgrade existing refineries to meet both refined product demand and to manage the changing quality of crude feedstock as production growth gets heavier. [post_title] => Iraqi Oil: industry evolution and short and medium-term prospects [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => closed [ping_status] => closed [post_password] => [post_name] => iraqi-oil-industry-evolution-short-medium-term-prospects [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2018-10-24 10:53:32 [post_modified_gmt] => 2018-10-24 09:53:32 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => https://www.oxfordenergy.org/?post_type=publications&p=31246 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => publications [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw ) [11] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 33501 [post_author] => 111 [post_date] => 2017-06-06 12:41:42 [post_date_gmt] => 2017-06-06 11:41:42 [post_content] => The Kremlin has turned its foreign policy strategy back to an old Soviet source of geopolitical influence—the Middle East. The United States’ decision to abandon its role as regional underwriter in chief over the course of Barack Obama’s second presidential term, as evidenced by a series of U-turns on Syria and the decision to indirectly support a regional rebalancing of power between Saudi Arabia and Iran following the lifting of nuclear sanctions in 2016, has allowed the Kremlin to claim a stake in the Middle East’s conflict hot spots, as well as to insert its energy sector at the heart of the region’s oil and gas markets. Henderson, J. and Mehdi, A. (2017, June). ‘Russia’s Middle East Energy diplomacy’, Foreign Affairs. [post_title] => Russia’s Middle East Energy diplomacy [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => closed [ping_status] => closed [post_password] => [post_name] => russias-middle-east-energy-diplomacy [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2019-12-06 12:43:40 [post_modified_gmt] => 2019-12-06 12:43:40 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => https://www.oxfordenergy.org/?post_type=publications&p=33501 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => publications [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw ) ) [post_count] => 12 [current_post] => -1 [before_loop] => 1 [in_the_loop] => [post] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 47018 [post_author] => 974 [post_date] => 2024-02-14 11:56:58 [post_date_gmt] => 2024-02-14 11:56:58 [post_content] => With the lithium-ion battery sector this year entering the terawatt era (Twh) – driven by demand from the Electric Vehicle (EV) and Battery Energy Storage Sector (BESS) – there remains little doubt over lithium’s central importance to the energy transition. While there has been no shortage of analyses examining the challenges of scaling lithium supply to meet long-term net-zero targets, less discussed has been the role of pricing and its interaction with a more dynamic lithium market. After all, it is price signals which determine the efficient allocation of capital in any market, particularly in an immature one where China has an outsized role. The recent slump in lithium prices has triggered a range of questions in the market: how sustainable are current spot prices? Has lithium’s marginal cost of production become more dynamic compared to previous years? What next for lithium prices and pricing? This Energy Insight sheds light on some key features of lithium’s evolving pricing landscape; the drivers of volatility in the market; and the implications ahead as lithium’s journey to market maturity continues apace. [post_title] => Lithium price volatility: where next for the market? 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