CMarkits is directed by Dr. Yousef Alshammari, who is officially the CEO and Head of Oil Research. He is a former Research Fellow at the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and a current Honorary Senior Research Fellow at Imperial College London.
Dr. Yousef Alshammari
Dr. Alshammari is one of the world’s top 50 global energy analysts, listed by Gulf Intelligence, with more than 10 years of experience in energy research. His insight has been quoted by CNN, Bloomberg, CNBC, the Petroleum Economist, S&P, Energy Intelligence, and Gulf Intelligence. He often appears on Al Arabiya and other TV channels to comment on OPEC+, energy markets, and climate issues, with more than 300 TV shows on record. He has over 40 insightful articles on oil and energy market analysis published in Forbes Middle East, CNN Arabic, and Oilprice. His articles have been featured by Business Insider, MarketWatch, NASDAQ, and Yahoo Finance. Furthermore, Dr. Alshammari is an expert member at the Group of Experts on Sustainable Energy at the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, Geneva, where he has been advising countries on better strategies for cleaner use of fossil fuels.
As a consultant, he frequently responds to inquiries from the international media and financial industry on the potential future directions of oil markets under issues of critical uncertainty, including OPEC+ decisions, geopolitical developments, and natural disasters. During the COVID-19 crisis in 2020, Dr. Alshammari responded to more than 100 media inquiries and client consultations, and he has attended all of the OPEC+ monthly virtual press conferences with energy ministers of several countries, including Saudi Arabia, Russia, the UAE, Algeria, Iraq, Angola, and Nigeria.
Dr. Alshammari has been a keynote speaker at the London Climate Technology Show (2022), along with the CEO of the UK Environmental Agency, Sir James Bevan, and HH Sheikha Shamma AlNahayyan. He was invited to be the keynote speaker at many global events, including the MIT Energy Conference (2023), the Vienna Energy Security Dialogue (2022), the Microsoft Sustainability Dialogue in Saudi Arabia (2022), the European Energy Forum (2015), and the BGS Solar Forum (2016). He was also invited to deliver talks at the S&P Global Commodity Insight HQ, APICORP, OPEC, Regents University London, Heriot Watt University Edinburgh, the American University of Beirut (AUB), and the King Faisal Centre for Research and Islamic Studies (KFCRIS).
In 2021, Dr. Alshammary was honored as the guest speaker of the year on “OPEC+ and Oil Market Dynamics” by the International Society of Petroleum Engineers in Saudi Arabia, sponsored by Aramco and Schlumbger. He was also the 51st guest on the show “Cleaning Up,” hosted by Bloomberg New Energy Finance founder Michael Liebreich and other leading global figures, to discuss Saudi Arabia’s energy transition.Previous guests at the show have included Ban Ki-moon, Tony Blair, Lord Browne, Fatih Birol, Ernest Moniz, and Stephen Chu. He was also invited as a featured guest speaker at the event along with leaders from SABIC and KPMG to discuss carbon markets, which was moderated by Gulf Intelligence.
In addition to his consulting role, Dr. Alshammari is a Professor of Renewable Energy and Engineering Economics at Prince Mohammad bin Fahd University, Saudi Arabia, where he taught more than 1000 students (undergraduates and postgraduates), including some of the first female engineering students in the country. Many of his students are taking key engineering roles at major firms including Aramco, Schlumberger, NEOM, Worley, and GE. He has published more than 10 research articles at Energy Policy, OPEC Energy Review, and the International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, for which he has also served as a peer reviewer.
He obtained his PhD in Chemical Engineering from Imperial College London in 2014, where he worked on designing innovative processes for clean hydrogen generation from heavy oil fields. Following his PhD, he started his career as a researcher at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), where he analyzed the techno-economic assessment of nuclear production of hydrogen, which enabled him to combine engineering with energy economics and policy. He was a research fellow at OPEC and the IEA Hydrogen Implementing Agreement, a principal researcher in energy economics at the University of Vienna, and a postdoctoral fellow at KAUST. Dr. Alshammari received a SABIC Fellowship while working in Vienna to study energy transitions in the petrochemical sector. He was also an associate at the King Faisal Centre for Research and Islamic Studies (KFCRIS), chaired by HRH Prince Turki Alfaisal.
While doing his PhD, Dr. Alshammari was awarded the Outstanding Student Service Award as the President of the Student Chapter of the International Association of Hydrogen Energy at Imperial College London. He was then selected as a Future Energy Leader by the World Energy Council in 2013, and he was the winner of the World Energy Congress Prize for the top 20 research papers in 2016 for his work on the impact of low oil prices on carbon capture and storage. In 2017, he was also the winner of the UK Alumni Award for Professional Achievements and he was invited to the G20 Global Solutions Think Summit in Germany as a Young Global Changer. In 2018, he was honoured with a certificate of appreciation for his long-term leadership services as a board member of Future Energy Leaders by the World Energy Council.
In 2022, Dr. Alshammari was elected a Fellow of the Energy Institute in the UK in recognition of his long-term positive, distinctive, significant, and continuous contributions to the energy industry as a researcher, analyst, consultant, and commentator. In recognition of that, Dr Alshammari was honoured by the Governor of the Eastern Province in Saudi Arabia HRH Prince Saud bin Nayef as global Saudi scientist. In 2023, Dr. Alshammari was a selected judge at the global competition of the Oil & Gas Middle East Awards, in which he evaluated competing multi-billion dollar projects of the leading energy firms in the region in terms of their ESG, AI, innovation, social and economic impact, and sustainability.
