The Oil Drum: Europe

Chris Cook, former director of the International Petroleum Exchange and an energy consultant, is the originator of the Iranian Oil Bourse project.

Cook's involvement in the Iranian Oil Bourse project stemmed from work he did in the late nineties on manipulation of the oil market by the intermediaries. As a result of the realisation of how the intermediaries were making the market more volatile than it needed to be, making money at both the producer and consumers expense, Cook wrote to the governor of the central bank of Iran proposing the creation of a Middle Eastern Exchange with its own benchmark price.

The Iranians liked the idea, the Saudis however couldn't support it due to US connections. After 9/11 the Saudi's withdrew their objections and in May 2004 Cook was invited to Iran's central bank to give a presentation setting out how an oil exchange might operate. Cook and his consortium got the contract to put it together. Difficulties arose however since the Oil Ministry didn't want transparency in the oil market, the current system not withstanding its flaws was making the Iranian elite lots of money.

Cook understands Peak Oil, and following his brief but highly informative off-the-cuff talk at the PowerSwitch Peak Speak 2 conference in the UK, Julian Jackson of PowerSwitch interviewed him about the Oil Bourse, and also his ideas for using a new form of business organisation, the Limited Liability Partnership as a vehicle for investment in renewable energy technologies.

I think it's interesting that Cook says nothing about the Oil Bourse being based on the Euro. In fact he actually says the Euro isn't practicable. In most peoples minds Iranian Oil Bourse = Euro, but after talking with Cook I just don't think that's the case.

Full interview below the fold.