Global Oil Landscape:

Belal Jassoma

Senior Director, Tech Ecosystems,
DMCC

Belal Jassoma is the Senior Director of Tech Ecosystems at DMCC, the world’s leading business district and authority on international commodities trade and enterprise.

Belal joined DMCC in 2011 and has been instrumental in scaling up DMCC’s ecosystems and commercial offering, including new products, services and member engagement programmes. In his current capacity as Director for Ecosystems, Belal is responsible for developing key strategic relationships, partnerships and product functions as well as overseeing ecosystem development across several of DMCC’s industry verticals such as crypto, gaming, AI, energy and financial services.

Belal holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the American University of Sharjah and brings over 18 years of experience in real estate, investment, and government administration.

Mike Wittner

Global Head of Oil Market Research,
Intercontinental Exchange

Mike Wittner is Global Head of Oil Market Research for Intercontinental Exchange. Mike joined ICE in 2019. He leads a robust research effort to continuously analyze and anticipate changes in oil market structure and fundamentals. Mike and his team support oil sales and business development at ICE in creating new contracts and evolving existing contracts, in order to meet the hedging, trading, and investment needs of its customers around the world.

With more than 30 years of experience in oil market analysis, Mike has extensive knowledge of the global and regional crude oil and refined product markets, geopolitics, and non-fundamental oil market drivers.

From 2007-2019, Mike was the Global Head of Oil Research for Société Générale Corporate & Investment Banking, where he was a Managing Director. He was directly responsible for short-term and long-term global oil market analysis and forecasting. Mike was ranked in the top 4 for oil market research in 2009-2019, according to Risk and Energy Risk magazines, including 7 consecutive years at #1 in 2013-2019. Before that, he held a similar position at Crédit Agricole, as well as senior analytical roles at Koch Supply & Trading, the International Energy Agency, and PIRA Energy Group (now part of S&P Global Platts). Before getting his MBA, Mike worked as a geologist and project manager for an engineering firm and as an analyst at the Central Intelligence Agency.

Mike holds a BS in Geology from Cornell University and a MBA in International Business from George Washington University.

Mike is a regular speaker at industry conferences and seminars. His commentaries on oil market developments have been frequently quoted in the international media and he has appeared regularly on broadcast news. Media interviews have included CNBC, Bloomberg TV, CNN, BBC, CBC, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, New York Times, Economist, Bloomberg Business Week, the wire services, and the energy trade press.

Gary King

President,
ICE Futures Abu Dhabi

Dr. Iman Nasseri

Managing Director, Middle East Research,
FGE Nexant ECA

Dr Iman Nasseri, Managing Director - Middle East Research, is based in Dubai. He received his PhD in Economics in the United States, focusing on carbon markets and renewable energy economics, in 2013.

Iman is responsible for Middle East research; he also works closely with the refining team and has been involved with FGE’s Annual World Refining Outlook since 2014. 

Since Jan 2018, as Managing Director of Middle East, Iman has been in charge of the FGE NexantECA's analysis and coverage of the Middle East for oil, gas/NGLs, power, and petrochemicals. He has led multiple research projects across the Middle East for the region's NOCs, helping clients with strategic planning, market entry decisions, feasibility studies, and roadmaps.

Prior to focusing on the Middle East as his core focus, he worked with the gas/LNG team for years on several commercial and research projects and contributed to gas/LNG research across North America, Europe, and the Middle East. 

In 2021, Iman left the London office to head up FGE Dubai. The new office will allow us to better serve existing and future Middle Eastern clients.

Prior to joining FGE NexantECA in 2009, Iman worked for Iran’s Institute for International Energy Studies (IIES), the research arm of the Ministry of Petroleum, focusing on the policy-making and planning for renewable and new energy technologies and energy market regulations. 

Ahmed Mehdi

Managing Director,
Renaissance Energy Advisors

Ahmed Mehdi is Managing Director of Renaissance Energy Advisors (REA), an energy intelligence firm advising leading organisations on energy markets, pricing, and geopolitics. Ahmed works closely with oil and gas companies in the Middle East and North America. He previously acted as an advisor to BHP Petroleum and has spent over a decade in the field of market intelligence, corporate advisory and pricing intelligence. Ahmed also serves as a Senior Research Fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies (OIES) and non-Resident Fellow at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs in New York.

He holds degrees from the University of Oxford (St Antony’s College) and University College London.

Dr Li-Chen Sim

Assistant Professor,
Khalifa University

Dr Li-Chen Sim is a specialist on hydrocarbon and low carbon energies in the Gulf and the wider Middle East. Her research centers on the political economies of development and on foreign policy implications for Gulf, Russia, and Middle East interactions. With expertise that bridges academic, industry, and policy, her influence is reflected in top-ranked publications, collaborations with industry, and engagements with leading think tanks and embassies.

Her most recently published books include Asian Perceptions of Gulf Security (Routledge, 2023) and Low Carbon Energy in the Middle East and North Africa (Palgrave 2021). Her articles have appeared in top tier academic journals such as Global Policy, Energy Research & Social Science, Journal of Contemporary China, Policy Studies, Energies, and Asian Security; on forums hosted by premier think tanks the Atlantic Council and Harvard University’s Belfer Center; and in popular media like the South China Morning Post and Natural Gas Intelligence.

She is active on the speaking circuit, having been a guest at Chatham House London, Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington DC, Emirates Center for Strategic Studies & Research, Foreign Service Institute in Washington DC, INSEAD Abu Dhabi, and Japan’s Institute of Energy Economics among others.

With a PhD from Oxford, she is currently an Assistant Professor at Khalifa University in the United Arab Emirates and an Associate Fellow at the US Middle East Institute.