CERA Week In Houston Was As Appalling As You'd Expect, But Oil CEOs Still Prepared To Whine About "Uncertainty"

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The mood at this year’s CeraWeek was at times not only celebratory but also swaggering. The US energy secretary, Chris Wright, kicked off the conference on Monday by saying the Trump administration was “unabashedly pursuing a policy of more American energy production”. Days later, as the White House announced an unprecedented series of environmental rollbacks, the interior secretary, Doug Burgum, invoked Trump’s “drill, baby, drill” mantra and claimed White House officials would cut 20 to 30% of US regulations.

Executives who only months ago were touting their sustainability bona fides heaped praise on the administration. Amin Nasser, CEO of the Saudi national oil company, Saudi Aramco, said the shift away from fossil fuels had been “doomed to fail”, while Larry Fink, head of top asset manager BlackRock, wore a silicone bracelet that read “make energy great again”. The ConocoPhillips chief, Ryan Lance, said Trump had “probably the best energy team in the United States we’ve had in decades”, while the Chevron chief, Mike Wirth, shouted out the “well-qualified people in the Trump administration”. BP, once called a climate leader in the industry, distanced itself from its recent sustainability pledges, calling instead to ramp up US gas output, which already reached record levels under Biden. “We have a fabulous position here in the Gulf of America,” said its CEO, Murray Auchincloss.

Calls for “energy abundance” featured heavily, especially amid conversations about a coming boom in demand from the burgeoning artificial intelligence industry. And the theme of abundance carried over to the amenities offered, too. The price of admission, which topped $10,000, included daily charcuterie spreads and access to unlimited bubble tea. Burgum’s speech was at a luncheon featuring a three-course plated meal. Wine flowed from open bars at nightly receptions and parties like gas from the nearby shale fields of Texas. (One notable shindig, thrown by the oil and gas companies Williams and EQT, was a 1990s-themed and featured a live band. Its name: “Nothin’ But a Gas Thang.”)

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Beneath the bravado inside the conference, however, some showed signs of worry about the energy sector’s fate under Trump. The president’s threats of tariffs, some noted, were creating uncertainty in the business environment and clouding the outlook for fuel prices. The president of the Malaysian oil company Petronas bemoaned policy “pendulum swings” between administrations, while others noted Trump’s executive orders would create confusion as they are challenged in the courts. “Regulatory uncertainty can be even worse than too much regulation,” said the right-leaning policy researcher Adam J White at a Wednesday roundtable. Even Trump’s biggest backers called for stability. Vicki Hollub, chief executive of Occidental, who donated hundreds of thousands to Trump, lamented the uncertain future of a controversial tax credit for carbon capture. The incentive was part of Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, which Trump has pledged to decimate.

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https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/15/cera-week-houston-texas