Hello everyone, I'm Kimberly Adams. Welcome back to Make Me Smart, where none of us is as smart as all of us. Last week, executives from energy companies from all over the world met in Houston for CERA week, an annual conference that's nicknamed the Super Bowl of Energy. Now, it's a particularly interesting time for the industry to come together because this war with Iran is really impacting their businesses and looming over the entire global economy. My colleague Elizabeth Troval spent the week there and she's here to tell us about what folks were saying. Give us a little insight onto what the top minds in the energy industry are thinking about. Liz, welcome back. Yeah, super happy to chat. So what exactly is CERA Week and who shows up? So CERA Week is an annual global energy conference, like major global energy conference put on by S&P Global. It takes place in downtown Houston and it's top executives in the world of oil, gas, utilities, car companies, like we're talking the CEOs of the Fords and Chevrons of the world are coming to Houston for this conference. And also politicians, folks like Energy Secretary Chris Wright and former Secretary of State John Kerry. And just real quick, also the tickets to attend like the main conference, I just want to say, are $11,000. Press, of course, does not have to pay $11,000. But yeah, that's how much people are paying to just get in to attend this conference. Wow. So that's a lot of money. Obviously, it is clearly the important place to be. What was the energy like there? The vibes were interesting. Like, you know, it was a bit tense. There's restrained, hesitant. And there's just there's just something weird. I was talking to my former colleague at the Houston Chronicle, Amanda Drain. She and I were talking about how it's just like kind of weird to be looking at like the front page of like the journal and the New York Times and seeing like this war imagery. And then to be at this like buttoned up conference where people are wearing suits that are like more expensive than my car, you know. And like a lot of a lot of things go unsaid at these things. But at the same time, geopolitics and instability were still like very much the center of the conference. Like what's happening in the Middle East is at the top of everybody's minds. Like how long will this go on and how much will it reshape the global energy industry. Going into this year, the oil prices were pretty low and have rapidly been pushed up due to the war with Iran. How are energy companies, you know, responding to the shift, especially given how quickly it's happened? Yeah. So I feel like the CEO of Conoco Phillips, Ryan Lance, kind of had it explained it well of like headwinds have become tailwinds. Right. Right. So there was oversupply in the industry. There was more oil than people needed coming into this year. Prices were low, you know, wasn't looking so hot for oil and gas companies. And then everything's kind of turned on its head. And so that over like, thankfully, we had we had a bit of an oversupply because that's helping cushion the kind of price shock. Right. We're feeling right now. And, you know, the industry, yes, is more revenue coming in because of those higher higher prices, of course. Oh, I want to get to that revenue bit in a little bit. But you were at last year's Sierra Week conference. And I wonder if you hear differences in the way they're talking about strategy and messaging around oil and what's going on in the industry in particular. Yes, definitely. There's been a shift. I mean, I think last year, the conversation was really about like how the industry is adjusting to the new Trump administration and the new kind of new policies. You know, there was a lot of conversation about tariffs and trade and also kind of a moving away from the energy transition economy, if you will. So I feel like that was more at the center. Whereas now, I mean, geopolitics are, you know, what everyone is thinking and talking about. We're going to take a quick break, but we'll be right back. If you're a business leader, Intuit QuickBooks Payroll is an essential tool that completely integrates payroll, time tracking, HR, and your financials in a powerful all-in-one command center. No more juggling platforms or switching between vendors. All your data synced into one platform offering clarity and confidence to make smarter decisions and focus on what matters. This summer, QuickBooks Payroll evolves to support the entire team lifecycle, HR, time, benefits, and payroll, all working together in one connected system that fully integrates with your books. 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And you mentioned earlier about revenues being up because price of oil goes up and the oil companies can potentially get a higher profit, assuming that their costs of getting the oil around the world right now aren't too high. But I mean, is everybody making more money in the industry? And also, like, how would they even talk about that, you know, as a good thing given its war? Well, I mean, I think you need to also, I mean, these are global oil companies. So while the, you know, while they're making more money off of the barrel of oil, like a lot of these companies have assets in, you know, the Middle East that are affected, like they're evacuating personnel and things like that. So, and right, like no one is, like, dancing about war. But I think, I mean, I think that's part of the why it is a bit there's like restraint for multiple reasons and how these companies are talking about things because obviously nobody wants to come up as being insensitive and people. But this industry, like, I guess it's just important to remember the context here. Like, just like what the last six years have looked about look like like COVID-19. We had oil prices tanking, you know, to 10 to $30 a barrel, depending on your benchmark. Russia war sent oil prices past $130 a barrel, you know, and then now we're in it and then, you know, things settle down and then things spike again. So like all of these, like these industry folks, they're thinking about long term investments and what things look like over time versus like, we're still thinking about the future. And so, you know, we're still thinking about long term investments versus like responding, you know, in the heat of the moment. So the war with Iran wasn't the only geopolitical topic at Sarah Week. There was also a speech by Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner, although she gave it away. Maria Karina Machado was there. Tell us about her speech. Yeah. So this, I feel like was such a lively moment. Her energy, her optimism about Venezuela and, you know, and like I heard people walking out the door being like, oh my gosh, she was she was so good. And she just really emphasized like, she's pitching, she's pitching to the energy world being like, invest in Venezuela, invest in us. You know, it's, you know, she said things like there's low risk in terms of exploration, you know, the resources there, it's competitive production costs and, you know, and then of course, like, we're going to be committed to, you know, a strong institutional framework so investors can feel confident and the Venezuelan people have learned they want free markets, they're ready for you. So, you know, it was, it was an impassioned speech but also speaking very much to, you know, to like what the industry wants to hear from her. But, you know, she's not running Venezuela. And, you know, after she left, there was like, then kind of a round table or a panel, right, talking about like, you know, like we need to see if that country like what happens with elections in that country, what happens, you know, who gets elected, like, you know, what happens to that institutional framework, because like big, big, big things have to happen in order for companies to invest billions of dollars in that country, right. And another one of the big issues, I'm sure they were discussing there because it's a major issue for the energy sector is the, is how they meet the rising electricity demands created by the AI boom. What did you hear about that? Yeah, I mean, so, so many panels about how do we meet growing electricity demand. And I, you know, this could be a whole other conversation, but I think like, like big picture though, right, big picture, I feel like we're really moving away from an energy transition framework and into a how do we scale up electricity production so we can win the AI race, right. And like renewable energy will absolutely be a part of that scaling up. But I think there's like an all hands on deck kind of mentality around like how we build up that infrastructure. I mean, lots of hard conversations were had like hyperscalers, energy producers, utilities, are all kind of more and more understanding, like, each what each other wants and needs. But there's still like lots of open questions, like whether it's like supply chain issues for gas turbines or like long permitting queues, like there's just still lots of kind of an unanswered questions and challenges ahead when it comes to this, this topic. And I know we've been mainly talking about oil and natural gas, but you mentioned that there is a big presence for folks in the renewables industry there, like, do they all get along at the conference and stuff? Yeah, I mean, I think like, I don't know, maybe increasingly so, just because I feel like there's an understanding that we need to have like diverse supplies of energy. And that we have all this growth and demand in terms of electricity and there's a role for everyone. And, and, and I think like, there's some frustrations, I think like wherever you fall and the renewable side or the, you know, traditional oil and gas side that like, we need strong, we need consistency from our policy makers in terms of like, where are we headed? Like, what do we want as a country in terms of energy? So, but it's interesting, you know, the conference is split, like there's the executive conference that cost $11,000 and then there's the Agora side that happens in the Georgia Rwanda Convention Center next door. That's where you see more renewables and kind of like smaller tech companies that have like solutions for reducing like methane, you know, or whatever it may be like there's so the conference is kind of kind of big. It's not bifurcated, but maybe like increasingly there's like, there's an acknowledgement that it's like a part of a bigger ecosystem, energy ecosystem and everyone like kind of needs everyone. Oh, that's fascinating. What was the most interesting solution that you saw at the conference? I'm really interested in like, like lithium and the the smack over and the smack over. What is the smack over? It's a smack over farm at home, man. Don't make me get into like prehistoric geology. But underground, there's basically a ton of like dinosaur age or maybe before dinosaur age rocks that have all of this brine that has lithium in it. And there's like these kind of emerging technologies sucking kind of the lithium out of this brine in order to make make batteries and maybe not now EV batteries, maybe now there'll be batteries for data centers. So like it's kind of interesting, right? Because you see like maybe the battery supply chain for EVs, maybe that's not where it's going, but maybe we still want to have that kind of renewables that battery supply chain and but maybe it's more going to be going towards yeah, like that hyperscalar question. So that's another kind of shift that I saw. That's super fascinating. I know whenever I go to these conferences, I always leave with a million story ideas. So what are you going to be working on next? Well, I'm super interested in in the like Venezuela. Chevron has been there this whole time and I'm and and also there are like while I mean this conference is really focused on it's like the big oil majors that are publicly held companies, they have to pay out to shareholders, but there are like companies that, you know, small private companies, wildcatter companies that will go out to a Venezuela and just be like, we're going to throw money at this and and and try to make this happen as quickly as we can and they might not be, you know, scaling up production in a way that kind of makes major headlines, but I'm super interested in like what it means to go back on the ground in Venezuela for for US companies and a lot of Venezuelans live in Houston and work in the energy industry and I'm curious that any of them are going to go back and and like be a part of like rebuilding that industry in Venezuela as kind of expats, right, like US, Venezuela and expats in Venezuela, but that's something that I'm super interested in. Well, that is Marketplace's Elizabeth Troval, who's our senior reporter covering energy and immigration. We are going to have plenty of links to Elizabeth's reporting in our show notes. Thank you so much, Elizabeth. Yeah, thanks for having me, Kimberly. That is it for today. If you have questions about the war in Iran and what it means for the global economy or the energy sector in particular, send them our way. You can email us at make me smart at marketplace.org or leave us a voicemail at 508 U B smart. Make Me Smart is produced by Courtney Burke Seeker. Today's program was engineered by Montana Johnson with mixing by John Fokie. Ben Toladay and Daniel Ramirez composed our theme music. Our supervisory senior producer is Daisy Palacios. Nancy Fargali is executive producer of Marketplace shows and Marketplace's vice president and general manager is Neil Scarborough. 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