Advisory
NORD undertakes commissioned research and analysis for clients. That work is separate from what NORD publishes, and the separation is set out here before the work is described, because it is the condition on which both are worth anything.
The separation
NORD's published research is never commissioned, sponsored or funded by any party with an interest in its conclusions. Nobody buys a published conclusion, and nobody sees one before it is public.
Commissioned work is delivered to the client and is not published as NORD research. Where a client wishes to publish work NORD has produced, it appears under the client's name or with the commission disclosed on its face.
Where a client relationship bears on a subject NORD publishes on, the relationship is disclosed at the point of publication, whether or not the engagement has ended.
NORD holds no equity, trading position or financial interest in any entity it writes about, and accepts no engagement whose deliverable is a conclusion specified in advance.
Engagements
Commissioned research. Notes on FSU and MENA oil and gas market structure, built to the standard set out on the Methodology page: every factual claim carrying a named organisation, a publication, a locator, an access date and a direct quotation.
Corridor and counterparty analysis. Background work on a specific transit route, terminal, regulatory regime or counterparty, assembled from public primary sources in the languages they are issued in.
Series reconstruction. Where a price or flow series is fragmented across public sources, NORD reconstructs it with the construction documented and the uncertainty stated. The Med-TTF Basis Indicator is that method applied to NORD's own account.
Source audit. Review of a third party's analysis against the sources it cites: whether each figure appears in the source credited with it, whether quotations are accurate, whether an observation postdates the claim it supports. NORD runs this check against its own work before publication.
Briefing and review. Written briefings for a specific decision, and review of draft analysis before it goes to a board, a client or a regulator.
How engagements work
Scope, deliverable and timetable are agreed in writing before work begins. Fees are quoted per engagement on request. NORD does not publish rates and does not work on contingency.
Every deliverable carries its sources at the standard the published work uses. A client who disagrees with a conclusion is owed an argument about the evidence, and is not owed a different conclusion.
NORD is a single-analyst practice. Capacity is limited, and it is stated at the enquiry stage rather than discovered at the deadline.
What NORD does not do
Advocacy, or analysis written in support of a position fixed before the work.
Expert testimony, regulatory submissions or public comment presented as independent when it is paid, unless the payment is disclosed on the document itself.
Price assessment. NORD is not a Price Reporting Agency and does not publish or supply prices.
Work on a subject where NORD holds a published position the engagement would require it to contradict, unless the engagement is to revisit that position and the revision is published.
Enquiries
An enquiry should state the question, the decision it serves and the timetable. A first response says whether NORD can do the work, and says so plainly when it cannot.