On Monday, it was Daniel Yergin, the chairman of the IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates (IHS CERA), the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “The Prize,” a history of the oil industry, who was designated as the champion. On Tuesday, it was the turn of Fatih Birol, the IEA chief economist and the principal author of the much-awaited annual World Energy Outlook, the flagship of the IEA, to be termed as the champion. And on Wednesday, as the focus of the Congress switched to acceptability - from accessibility and availability on the first two days - it was the turn of Lester R. Brown, the president of the Earth Policy Institute to be termed as the champion. And from the program available, it is evident that on the concluding day of the Congress, Pascal Lamy, the director general of the World Trade Organization, would assume the mantle of the champion on Thursday.
Now each day at 8:40 in the morning, these gentlemen, the champions, would come out on the stage and deliver and set into motion the agenda and the tone for the day.
But what made them champion in the first go is difficult for me to fathom and understand. They are definitely heavyweights in their respective fields no doubt about it. Yet, did that qualify them to be referred to as champions? I leave it to readers’ imagination. For me the word champion carries a somewhat different connotation — to say the least.
After filing my story on Tuesday, I began roaming around in the exhibition center catering to the Congress. A virtual who’s who in the energy industry had put up stalls here.
Saudi Aramco is here, too, and very conspicuous with its huge, overbearing presence. While enjoying a cup of café latte at the Aramco exhibit - I began talking to Dr. Esam Hamad, the program director (A) at the Downstream Program Direction of the Aramco R&D Center. And there was an interesting revelation: Saudi Aramco in association with some engineering company is working on a car that would have mechanism to capture carbon — instead of emitting it into the atmosphere. And this car could be unveiled in about a year’s time. Now this is interesting. In an era marked by talks of carbon capture all around, this could be an exciting development to say the least. At least the idea looks encouraging - from an environment perspective. I need to follow up some day - once I am back in Alkhobar.
And then there was the 15-minute documentary on Aramco R&D Center, on the projects the company was involved with currently. And that was enough to indicate the depth and width of Aramco - the way it was gearing up to meet the challenges of tomorrow. After all with oil to continue driving the world for many, many more decades, as CEO Khalid Al-Falih underlined on day 1 and with Saudi Arabia capable of remaining the global gas station, with more than eight decades of supplies in place at the current output levels, Aramco definitely needs all sorts of ingenuity — for its own sake and for the sake of sustaining this crude driven civilization.
However, as mentioned by Al-Falih in his various press interviews here, Saudi Arabia is working on a silent gas revolution too, that could change the global energy slate to say the least.
Qatar Petroleum is also here, almost adjacent to the Aramco exhibit, so is the International Energy Agency — though with a small booth. Interestingly, OPEC is not to be seen around.
While the energy world remained focused on issues confronting this crucial sector — sustaining the modern civilization — OPEC in far off Vienna was celebrating the 50th anniversary of its formation. Yet there was no mention of it here - at least not to my knowledge. That is strange. Isn’t it? After all, for the last 50 years, energy and OPEC have remained almost synonymous.
