Overview and Capabilites

The Willis Towers Watson Oil, Gas and Chemicals team comprises over 190 experts including transactional, technical, claims, wording and engineering specialists operating all over the world. They provide a complete risk management, risk transfer and in-house claims service, built around a deep understanding of all aspects of the industry. We view ourselves as a strategic business partner, focused on delivering real value both in risk management and risk transfer.

Through Willis Towers Watson' industry benchmarking, we are able to guide our clients through a variety of risk management approaches employed across the wider industry sector to enable them to make the most informed risk decisions. Publications such as the market-leading Natural Resources Market Review provide in-depth analysis of issues affecting the Oil, Gas and Chemicals sector.

Key challenges

The global Oil, Gas and Chemical sector is predicted to grow significantly on the back of strong demand which will continue to expand during the next few decades alongside the gradual recalibration of the energy system. However, the industry's traditional business models are increasingly threatened by significant and immediate change:

• Increasing costs: finding new sources of hydrocarbons and extracting them is becoming increasingly challenging and expensive, despite technological developments; moreover, Oil Gas and Chemicals companies are doing so against a backdrop of increasingly volatile commodity prices, output declines and asset retirements.
• Planning challenges: new sources of feedstock, combined with global political uncertainty, make it difficult to plan long term. New assets can take over 10 years to develop into a producing plant, while chemical and petrochemical companies are facing increased demand for new technology products.
• Insufficient risk transfer capacity for peak energy risks: insurance market capacity may be on the increase but, wherever you look in this industry today, you see the same dynamic – assets have grown bigger while the level of risk transfer provision by the insurance market doesn't always match up to what is required.
• Increased natural catastrophe risk: exposures have increased because more industry infrastructure has been deployed in high threat areas. A trend of more extreme weather and stronger storms is anticipated in the future.
• Implementation of new technology: as the search for hydrocarbons moves into increasingly challenging physical environments and deeper water, the risk of accidents arising from new technology naturally increases; however, both the frequency and severity levels of any future losses still remain difficult to establish.
• Increasingly complex asset bases and global supply chains: as Oil, Gas and Chemicals companies position themselves in the global marketplace and continue to diversify their business models, the industry now has significant exposures to climate change, political and regulatory uncertainties and financial instability.
• Corporate Social Responsibility risks: aligning investment strategies with political and environmental policy frameworks and demonstrating strong health & safety and risk management cultures continue to be key challenges for the industry.

Many of our clients operate some of the largest and most complex programmes in the Oil, Gas and Chemicals sector and do business in the most challenging territories and environments.

Our specialists have the experience, industry expertise and training to deliver clear guidance, at speed. Wherever a client may be in the exploration, production, construction or operational life cycle, we ensure that their risks are effectively managed from a contractual and regulatory standpoint. Our team of in-house lawyers and wording specialists are experts in reviewing existing contract obligations and in developing best in class wordings to maximise protection and help limit liability.

Identifying and analysing your risk

As recognised worldwide as leaders in this sector, we work with a range of oil and gas companies to identify and prioritise their exposures, creating optimal and tailored strategies so you can make informed risk decisions. Through Willis Towers Watson' industry benchmarking, we are able to guide our clients through a variety of risk management approaches employed across the wider industry sector to enable them to make the most informed risk decisions.

Effective risk management strategies are those that are embedded across the enterprise. Willis Towers Watson Oil, Gas and Chemicals specialists work with our analysts to bring the most modern and sophisticated risk management techniques to your programme, thereby enhancing your risk culture and optimising your risk costs:

• We operate as a strategic business partner and challenge assumptions to deliver the best solutions.
• We ensure that risk management strategies are aligned and integrated with operational goals to reduce uncertainty and enhance our clients' market positioning.
• We help captive insurance companies to deliver the most efficient financing and the most responsive services to both Group and business unit management.

Optimising your risk

We combine sector knowledge with analytical capabilities to design optimal risk programmes by applying proprietary risk analytics, tools and sector knowledge to help our clients make more informed risk management decisions. Our risk analysts keep pace with the models applied by the insurance markets and combine this insight with proprietary tools and technologies to provide our clients with the best advantage.

We then establish the most efficient balance between risk transfer and retention by setting appropriate limits and deductibles in line with a client's agreed risk appetite. Willis Towers Watson runs the most comprehensive database of Oil, Gas and Chemicals losses in the world. Providing proprietary benchmarking information, this resource is unique and widely used by clients, insurers and loss adjusters throughout the industry.

Protecting your risk

Our risk management specialists regularly reassess client programmes so that they remain relevant – this is not a one-off process confined to the insurance renewal. We ensure that our approach to risk transfer is fully aligned to our clients' business and their strategic priorities, through:

• Achieving premium efficiency by obtaining broad and clear coverage at the most competitive price
• Access to global markets via specialist industry hubs around the world
• Transparent market selection, based on statistical analysis of insurer competitiveness, rating, claims performance and service
• The generation of new market capacity for the sector from both mature and developing markets
• Ensuring that the interests of lenders are upheld ( as well as other stakeholders in the client's risk financing arrangements)

Developing long term solutions for your risk

We design and place sustainable insurance programmes, prioritising long-term, secure, 'relationship' insurers. We regularly test these programs and develop alternative insurance capacity to ensure that our clients are not overly dependent on any particular insurer(s) and that they benefit from market competition for their business. We keep our clients updated on market and other developments throughout the year, with relevant benchmarking and premium budgeting so that they receive no unpleasant surprises at next renewal.

We are focused on protecting the financial metrics of our clients, their people and their assets. We understand that as your company grows, you need reliable information on territories into which you are expanding. So we provide territorial and project specific reports to help our clients make better decisions regarding investment strategies and we provide risk assessment reports in order to help reduce project investment risk profiles. This information can increase the Board's confidence levels in strategic decision making.