AIEN International Energy Summit 'Fireside Chat' with Gretchen Watkins and Maynard Holt

In our ‘Fireside Chat’ session this morning, Gretchen Watkins, President of Shell USA, and Maynard Holt, Founder and CEO of Veriten, discussed the energy transition in the US and how the industry needs to keep the conversation going.

Gretchen spoke of how the industry had been through a series of 1-2 punches. First, the pandemic shut the world down and the price of oil plummeted. Whilst the industry was still recovering from this, the Russian invasion of Ukraine prompted the world to respond in a way that is shifting the global, energy system. We still don’t know at this point what the industry, and indeed the world, will look like as a result.

They acknowledged that perspectives are changing in Washington. While oil & gas companies were being held up as the energy pariahs, people are now becoming aware that their distaste of these companies is not actually helpful for solving any problems. The US Secretary of Energy wants to secure affordable energy for everyone, and that is what the industry wants as well. But hydrocarbons are going to have a large role to play in the energy transition – a role that will diminish over time, but one that is vital in the current climate. Gretchen said the industry should be proud of what it is currently doing and push itself to be as clean, safe and as responsible as possible.

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