Big Oil to Take Centerstage at Houston Meet as Markets, Alliances Shift
SEATTLE (Oil Monster): Top energy executives and officials from around the world will descend on Houston next week just as the political fallout from Russia's invasion of Ukraine a year ago continues to distort global oil supply lines and put long-term energy security front of mind for governments.
Oil company chiefs and ministers will make their case for investment in all forms of energy - fossil fuels and renewables - to meet rising demand and at the same time accelerate the move toward the low-carbon industry of the future.
A record 7,000 people have signed up for the week-long CERAWeek discussion of fossil fuels, clean energy, advanced energy storage.
The war in Ukraine sparked a rally in crude oil and fuel prices that led to record industry profits, prompting the U.S. government and others to accuse Big Oil of profiteering and for Britain and some other governments to impose windfall taxes on energy companies.
Big Oil executives and U.S. government officials will likely trade blows publicly again as they did at last year’s event. While the U.S. and many Western governments continue to call on oil firms to pump more, executives at top oil firms say they have a duty to their shareholders to maximize returns for staying invested in an industry which faces an uncertain long-term future.
This year's presenters also reflect ongoing clashes over supply and demand between the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, Europe and the U.S. that have led to some visible vacancies.
Instead, Shell's (SHEL.L) newly-appointed Chief Executive Wael Sawan will join BP's (BP.L) Bernard Looney, Exxon Mobil Corp's (XOM.N) Darren Woods, Chevron's (CVX.N) Michael Wirth and TotalEnergies' (TTEF.PA) Patrick Pouyanne in prominent roles.
"We will get a sense of how companies' strategies have been changed by the events of the last year," said Dan Yergin, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author and vice chairman of conference organizer S&P Global, in an interview.
BP's Looney will share the stage with Hertz car-rental CEO Stephen Scherr, whose firm has become an energy transition champion with plans to buy tens of thousands of electric vehicles from General Motors (GM.N) , Polestar and Tesla (TSLA.O) .
"The industry is on board with the energy transition, ESG and decarbonization, but there is a recognition that we are going to need hydrocarbons from an energy reliability and security standpoint," Pat Jelinek, EY Americas oil and gas leader, said of the return to prominence of Big Oil executives.
Courtesy: www.reuters.com