Sankey started covering energy in 1990 as an Economics & History graduate of Manchester University, joining the International Energy Agency (IEA) in Paris, just as Saddam invaded Kuwait and started Gulf War I.  The IEA was thrust to prominence as the premium provider of global oil, gas and energy statistics and analysis.

Moving from the IEA to Wood Mackenzie in 1995 based in Edinburgh, Scotland, Sankey developed thought leadership in the emerging global LNG trade. In 2000 he switched locally to the Deutsche Bank European Oil Equity Research Extel #1-ranked team under JJ Traynor & Caroline Cook.

In 2004 he relocated to New York, Deutsche Bank at 60 Wall Street, later to become the scene for “The Big Short” movie in the Global Financial Crisis. Covering major oils and refining, he tagged ExxonMobil “the Big Unit”, argued for oil to reach 10% of the S&P500, and was highly involved in the build-up and break-down of ConocoPhillips. From 2005-2010 he covered Master Limited Partnerships and midstream, by now managing a team of six analysts. In 2010 he wrote “The Diamond Age of Refining” that predicted discounted US light crude prices as a result of the US unconventional boom, which would be the mega-theme of the next decade in global oil & gas.

In 2013, after a “three-peat” as #1 Institutional Investor ranked Oil & Gas analyst, he joined Wolfe Research and added coverage of US Exploration & Production (E&P) including tagging decade-winner EOG “The Apple of Oil”. After continuing to rank highly in both Big Oil & E&P in ii, he joined Mizuho in 2018.

In 2020, at the depths of COVID, having been the sole analyst to predict negative oil prices, he started his eponymous independent firm, Sankey Research, betting on the cycle. Within two years, oil would exceed $100/bbl on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

One of his best-read notes of 2024 was “What Happens When Oil hits $50/bbl?”

Sankey Research sells a subscription-based research product, with the flagship weekly Sunday Sankey; the weekly conference call Happy Hour featuring expert guests, regularly CEOs; the annual January virtual refining conference; and a strong output of thematic research covering global energy and commodities, including research on copper, gold, and natural gas-to-AI. As an independent analyst with no banking nor corporate overlord, Sankey Research is an unconstrained voice.

Sankey Research has now ranked #1 ii in Independent Oil & Gas research (2023).