Wood Mackenzie

Wood Mackenzie is a global energy, renewables and natural resources research consultancy, founded in 1923 in Edinburgh. Acquired by Verisk Analytics in 2015, it produces commodity price forecasts, supply-and-demand models and strategic analysis used by oil majors, banks and governments worldwide. Its Edinburgh headquarters give it a distinctly European vantage on global energy markets.

The firm gained prominence in the Iran conflict oil spike of 2026, when analyst Ann-Louise Hittle forecast Brent Crude at $150 per barrel and called $200 "not outside the realms of possibility" as the Strait of Hormuz remained disrupted . Its analysis fed directly into market pricing as Brent Crude peaked at $126 .

Wood Mackenzie occupies an unusual position: a paid research service whose analyst forecasts routinely move commodity markets when cited in financial press. Its $150-200 Brent scenarios, grounded in Hormuz disruption modelling, sit at the hawkish end of the forecast range alongside Vanda Insights, while peers such as Rystad Energy and Goldman Sachs offered lower ceilings. How long any disruption lasts will determine whose model proves right.

On the European energy markets desk, Wood Mackenzie's gas and LNG analyst Tom Marzec-Manser has been the firm's primary voice. On 25 April 2026, the day the EU's short-term Russian LNG ban entered force, Marzec-Manser assessed publicly that there was "no risk to supply just yet", characterising the 2.8-3.5 million tonne per year removal as a volume the market could absorb given US LNG availability and Norwegian pipeline flows. By late May 2026, Wood Mackenzie's benign near-term view was being stress-tested: the Troll A compressor fault (removing 34.6 MCM/day), an inverted TTF strip keeping commercial storage injection on the sidelines, and the narrowing EU storage buffer to 45 GWh/day on 29 May collectively tightened the conditions that Marzec-Manser's April assessment had treated as comfortably manageable. Wood Mackenzie's European gas coverage operates alongside its oil analysis and sits between ACER's official longer-horizon stress scenarios and the day-to-day market commentary from traders and banks. The firm's assessments on LNG terminal utilisation and Norwegian flow variability are closely tracked by utilities and gas traders benchmarking positions against third-party views.