The IEA, IEF and OPEC jointly hosted two high level technical meetings in London on 22-23 November 2010. The events brought together experts from industry, research, government, and the financial and regulatory sectors to discuss the interactions between the physical and financial markets for energy, and the regulatory framework in major trading markets. Discussions were held under the Chatham House Rule.

The first day’s workshop was organized around four sessions that looked at i) the recent evolution of physical markets, including crude benchmarks; ii) the evolution of energy-related financial markets; iii) “over-the-counter” trading and its impact on price discovery and volatility, and; iv) the relationship between oil products and paper markets.

A forum of regulators on day two examined the current framework of regulation for commodity futures and derivatives markets and the objectives and extent of the proposed reforms. The potential impacts of regulation on hedging and risk management were discussed. The last session covered international coordination for market regulation.

As agreed in the Cancun Ministerial Declaration of March 2010, the three Organisations will report on the two events to the IEF Ministerial Meeting to be held in February 2011 in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.