BP plc’s Orlando Alvarez, head of gas and power trading in the Americas, sees natural gas and other energy markets heading further into “unprecedented times” of market volatility and regulatory uncertainty, but those changes don’t all have to be challenges for the industry.

During a keynote address at LDC Gas Forums’ Gulf Coast Energy Forum in New Orleans, Alvarez said it is clear energy markets are being impacted from post Covid-19 pandemic constraints and increased geopolitical tensions abroad. He said companies are likely to endure even more rapid change in the near-term as the world adapts to the need for new sources of reliable and abundant energy.

However, Alvarez said, the volatility of the current market is more of an outcome of years of creeping policy and...