About Energy Foresight

Energy Foresight

Energy Foresight is an English-language, peer-reviewed, fully open-access journal published in Beijing, China, by KeAi Communications, with publishing services provided by Elsevier. The journal is owned by the Economics and Technology Research Institute of China National Petroleum Corporation — CNPC ETRI — the strategy and policy research institute directly under China National Petroleum Corporation. Where most energy journals publish laboratory and engineering research, Energy Foresight is a journal of forward-looking analysis: it focuses on innovation, development and macro analysis in the global energy industry, publishing original research and analysis on major energy policy and practice, new achievements and viewpoints in the industry, energy market dynamics and international energy cooperation, and it also serves as a platform for releasing major industry reports.

The journal is published quarterly. Its editorial office contact address is No. 112 Ande Road, Xicheng District, Beijing, China — the home of its owner institute. Peer review for the journal operates under the responsibility of its editorial board, and the journal follows a double anonymised review process, in which authors' and reviewers' identities are concealed from one another. For readers of this directory, the journal is best understood as the English-language publishing outlet of one of China's principal energy think tanks, created to carry Chinese energy strategy research — and the industry reporting behind it — to an international audience.

The owner: CNPC Economics & Technology Research Institute

The journal's owner, CNPC ETRI, is a research institution directly under China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC). It serves as a key decision-support organisation, primarily engaged in developing strategies and conducting policy research. ETRI is among the first pilot units selected for the construction of Chinese top think tanks, and one of the initial research consulting bases established by the National Energy Administration. In 2020, CNPC set up the CNPC Research Center of China Top Think Tanks within ETRI, formalising that role.

The institute's history is considerably longer than the journal's. Its predecessor was the Sci-tech Information Institute of the Ministry of Petroleum Industry, founded in 1964. Over more than sixty years of development, ETRI has grown from an initial scientific and technological information research institution into an enterprise think tank focusing on strategic research and decision support. That trajectory — from information institute to strategy institute — explains the character of Energy Foresight: the journal inherits an institutional tradition of collecting, analysing and publishing energy information, now directed at foresight, policy and markets rather than technical documentation alone.

Research strengths behind the journal

ETRI's declared research foundation covers the areas that define the journal's content. The institute has strong capabilities in energy strategy and security, energy economy and markets, energy geopolitics and international cooperation, and energy technology innovation and development, as well as corporate governance and enterprise management. It has produced over one hundred research products across five categories: decision-making research, information consulting, public services, project reports and publications. It established China's first soft science research laboratory for the oil and gas market, and has developed numerous laboratories, databases and methodological models.

The institute also convenes the community it studies. ETRI has initiated and hosted international cooperation and exchange initiatives such as the International Energy Executive Forum (IEEF), which enjoys high popularity and influence at home and abroad. Its stated mission is to shoulder its responsibilities as a top think tank, focusing on national priorities and enterprise essentials, conducting forward-looking policy and applied research, and providing high-quality research outcomes and decision-support services, with the goal of building a world-class research institute and a new type of think tank. Energy Foresight is the journal through which part of that forward-looking research reaches the scholarly and professional record in English.

Aims and scope

The journal's aims and scope, as set out in its guide for authors, focus on innovation, development and macro analysis in the global energy industry. It publishes original research and analysis on major energy policy and practice, new achievements and viewpoints in the industry, energy market dynamics and international energy cooperation, and it is also a platform for releasing major industry reports. The scope is organised under headed areas, the first five of which are Policy & Practice — including policy interpretation; Strategy & Development; Green Transition; Energy Market; and Scientific & Technological Innovation. An eighth headed area, Report Release, reflects the journal's report-publishing function; the full scope list in the author guide runs to eight areas in total.

These headings mark the journal out from technical energy titles. Policy & Practice and Strategy & Development place national and corporate strategy at the centre of the journal. Green Transition covers the restructuring of the energy system towards lower-carbon sources and technologies — a theme ETRI's own public reporting emphasises, including the green transformation of the energy sector and the growth of electric vehicles and other alternatives. Energy Market covers the dynamics of oil, gas and wider energy markets. Scientific & Technological Innovation covers how new technologies enter and reshape the industry. A submission to Energy Foresight is therefore expected to speak to decision-makers as well as to researchers: to analyse what is changing in the energy system, why it matters, and what follows for policy, strategy or markets.

Article types and review

The journal publishes five article forms: full-length articles, reviews, case reports, replication studies and editorials. The presence of case reports and replication studies alongside conventional articles and reviews is notable. Case reports allow the journal to document specific instances of energy policy or industry practice in analytical depth, while replication studies allow published findings — for example in market analysis or forecasting — to be tested and confirmed. Editorials provide the editorial board and the owning institute with a voice on current industry questions.

Review at the journal follows a double anonymised process. Manuscripts are handled under the responsibility of the journal's editorial board, and accepted articles are published open access immediately on publication. Authors should consult the journal's guide for authors, hosted on the KeAi Publishing website, for the full scope list, manuscript requirements and submission arrangements before submitting.

Open access and article charges

Energy Foresight is a peer-reviewed, fully open-access journal. Under its ownership arrangements, CNPC ETRI retains copyright of the overall compiled journal and the compiled issues, while for individual articles, authors retain copyright alongside scholarly usage rights, and KeAi Communications Co., Ltd. is granted non-exclusive publishing and distribution rights. All articles published open access are immediately and permanently free for everyone to read, download, copy and distribute.

Open access is funded through an article publishing charge. The journal's open-access fee is USD 1,000, excluding taxes, payable by authors or on their behalf by their research funder or institution. In a long launch-phase waiver, all article publishing charges for articles submitted to the journal before 31 December 2030 will be fully waived. That extended waiver — running years beyond the journal's launch period — substantially lowers the barrier for policy researchers, institute analysts and industry authors, many of whom publish outside conventional grant-funding structures, to contribute to the journal.

The institute's reporting tradition

The journal's Report Release function connects it to ETRI's best-known public products: its annual assessments of the global oil and gas industry. In January 2025, for example, CNPC ETRI released the seventeenth edition of its annual report on the development of the global oil and gas industry, reviewing 2024 and offering an outlook under the theme of seeking energy balance amid stability and change. The release was accompanied by an outlook on the domestic and international oil and gas industry development environment for China's Fifteenth Five-Year Plan period, and by the institute's Energy Data Handbook, a compilation of energy statistics covering global and Chinese energy consumption, production, trade, prices and transitions from 2000 to 2024.

Findings highlighted in that reporting illustrate the journal's subject matter: global primary energy consumption growth of 1.9 per cent in 2024 against a four per cent increase in China's energy consumption; a shift towards clean energy, increased electrification, expanding emerging technologies and enhanced energy integration; and a 1.7 per cent reduction in refined oil consumption attributed in part to alternatives including electric vehicles and LNG-powered trucks. The institute presents such reports as serving governments, businesses, researchers and investors — the same audiences Energy Foresight addresses in article form. A journal that can carry both peer-reviewed analysis and major industry reports gives that reporting a permanent, citable scholarly home.

Readership and place in the field

The journal's readership comprises energy policy researchers, strategy and market analysts in energy companies, officials and advisers concerned with energy security and transition policy, and academics in energy economics, geopolitics and innovation studies. Its combination of an owning think tank with six decades of institutional history, a quarterly peer-reviewed schedule, double anonymised review and full open access makes it a distinctive addition to the energy literature: an outlet where macro-level, forward-looking energy analysis — strategy, markets, geopolitics, green transition and technology innovation — is the core content rather than a supplement to engineering research.

For the international reader, the journal also performs a documentary function. Chinese energy strategy is formulated substantially within state and enterprise research institutes whose output has historically circulated mainly in Chinese. An English-language journal owned by CNPC's own research institute, publishing that community's analysis under international peer-review and open-access conditions, makes a significant body of perspective on global energy markets and transition policy directly accessible to readers outside China for the first time in journal form.

Access and contact

The journal's official presence is its KeAi Publishing journal page, which carries its aims and scope, author guidance, open-access information and society affiliation statement describing CNPC ETRI. The editorial office can be contacted through the addresses given on the journal's KeAi pages, including energyforesight@163.com, and the office's postal address is No. 112 Ande Road, Xicheng District, Beijing, China. Articles are published open access, free to read and download immediately after publication, and the journal appears quarterly each year.