The third session of the conference was also extremely interesting. The keynote speaker was Khalid Al-Falih, Senior Vice President and Board Member of Saudi ARAMCO, joined by Stephen Pryor, President of ExxonMobil; Peter Robertson, Vice Chairman of the Board of Chevron; John Hofmeister, President of Shell Oil; James Mulva, Chairman of the Board and CEO of ConocoPhillips and Chairman of the American Petroleum Institute; and Gary Heminger, Executive Vice President of Marathon Oil and President of Marathon Petroleum Co.

Clearly, their topic was oil.

All shared essentially the same perspective on the oil markets, production, and energy-in-general. The principle theme was that anyone who speaks of “energy independence” is either stupid or a liar. In a globalized world, no one is “independent”. One speaker noted that by 2030, alternative sources of power in the US will address only 6% of the demand; oil is here to stay, at least for quite a while.

Instead, “interdependence” should be the watchword, with policies oriented toward maximizing the benefits of it. Even Saudi Arabia, one of the few countries which plausibly could reach energy independence, acts on the principle of interdependence as they invest heavily in the US oil markets. The Saudis jointly own, for instance, hundreds of gas stations in the south and south east of the US. They are deeply invested in American oil refineries as well.

The role of Saudi Arabia was, of course, a primary topic, with many statistics being tossed about. Not only is the KSA a supplier, it remains a buffer in the price wars where countries with under performing oil sectors—like Venezuela and Nigeria—seek to maximize the price to maximize their incomes. All were in accord that the Saudis will be able to increase their production to 12 million barrels per day by 2009.