Watch Bob in Action
About Bob McNally
Bob McNally is the founder and president of Rapidan Energy Group, a research and advisory firm that integrates energy market analysis, policy expertise and geopolitical risk assessment for investors and energy companies worldwide. His 34-year career spans White House energy policy, hedge fund strategy and oil market analysis, and his work connects historical patterns in energy markets to the risks organizations face in a more volatile global economy.
McNally is the author of Crude Volatility, a history of oil price swings from the 19th-century Pennsylvania oil fields to OPEC's market-share battles. The book traces how Standard Oil, U.S. regulators, the major international oil companies and OPEC each tried to stabilize prices, and argues that the 2008 boom and 2015 collapse mark a structural return to extreme price swings. Crude Volatility received Honorable Mention in Economics in the 2018 PROSE Awards, the 2023 IAEE Marcel Boiteux Best International Energy Economics Book Award and the 2024 USAEE Adelman-Frankel Award for unique and innovative contribution to the field of energy economics. His research has been cited in Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University and congressional testimony on energy security and trade policy.
Books by Bob McNally
Articles by Bob McNally
Don't Ban Diesel Exports
September 2026U.S. House Committee on Energy and CommerceTestimony: American Energy Expansion: Strengthening Economic, Environmental, and National Security
January 2023Center on Global Energy Policy, Columbia UniversityOil Market Black Swans: Covid-19, the Market-Share War, and Long-Term Risks of Oil Volatility
April 2020Center on Global Energy Policy, Columbia UniversityCrude Volatility: Lessons From History
February 2017Foreign AffairsVindicating Volatility
November 2014U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural ResourcesTestimony: How to Harness a Game-Changing Resource for Export, Domestic Consumption, and Transportation Fuel
June 2014Foreign AffairsA Crude Predicament: The Era of Volatile Oil Prices
July 2011Bob in the Media
How the diesel price spike is rippling through nearly every part of the economy
Calls Grow for a U.S. Diesel Export Ban - But Economists Express Caution
Energy expert Bob McNally on how to protect consumers from a looming gas price spike
Energy expert Bob McNally on how to protect consumers from a looming gas price spike
Luisa Palacios and Bob McNally on Why the US-Venezuela Oil Deal Matters
Former energy adviser on the turbulent energy prices fueled by the Iran war
Time is not on President Trump's side in reopening the Strait of Hormuz: Bob McNally
$30 to $150 to $30: Oil Price Volatility Is Booming · Bob McNally
Iraqi oil production could make big strides, provided there is political stability: Bob McNally
Bob McNally (Part 2)
Bob McNally on Hormuz, Oil Prices, and the End of Energy Security Assumptions
Bob McNally and Jason Bordoff on Handling an Energy Crisis
Bring Bob to your next event
Tell us about your event and we will be in touch right away.
