Kruthika Anastasia Bala is the managing director of Resources Now, leading advisory work at the intersection of global energy systems, industrial development, and geopolitics, supporting organizations across energy markets, metals and minerals value chains, infrastructure, and industrial sectors as they navigate geopolitical risk, energy security pressures, and the structural shifts reshaping long-term investment decisions. Previously, she held leadership roles at JS Held, Eurasia Group, and Frost & Sullivan, where she led advisory engagements on market and geopolitical risk across energy supermajors, national oil companies, mining firms, industrial technology companies, financial institutions, and commodity traders. She holds an MSc in Energy Policy from the University of Sussex, Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU), a BSc in Physics from Bharathidasan University, and is a Fellow of the Energy Institute.
From Strategic Status to Commercial Reality: What Actually Changes When Europe Calls a Project Strategic?
As the EU expands its list of "Strategic Projects" under the Critical Raw Materials Act, a key question remains largely untested: does strategic designation genuinely shift a project's economics, or does it primarily change its administrative pathway? This session offers a practical framework for separating the distinct risk categories that policy intervention can — and cannot - influence: permitting and execution risk, capital cost, demand certainty, commodity-price exposure, offtake arrangements, and underlying competitiveness. Drawing on experience at the intersection of critical minerals policy, industrial strategy, market structure and commercial execution, Bala will stress-test the real-world impact of "strategic" status for project developers, financiers, and policymakers navigating Europe's critical minerals push.
