CERAWeek Days IV & V: Going nuclear & rounding up

The home stretch of CERAWeek did not disappoint. But before Days IV and V got underway, the conclusion of Wednesday (Day III) brought perhaps the biggest talking point of the event.

That's after the World Nuclear Association, anchored a huge group of cross-sector executives to commit to expanding nuclear energy.  

How huge you ask dear readers? Well it counts Google, Amazon, Meta, Occidental and Dow, 14 major global banks and financial institutions including Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Bank of America, and 140 nuclear industry companies among its ranks. Over 30 countries have also pledged their support.  

The target - a tripling of global nuclear power capacity by 2030, which is currently less than 10% of the energy mix. Here's the Oilholic's full in-depth report for Energy Connects on the development. 

One thing the announcement did immediately do is puncture the fawning over natural gas being the fuel to meet the world's power demands that we'd heard for almost three days of the event. More so, as several tech giants - whose burgeoning hypersonic datacentres natural gas is supposed to power - backed the nuclear announcement.

Away from it all, yours truly took time to meet Dr Hitoshi Kaguchi, Senior EVP, President and CEO of GX solutions, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Group. 

Dr Kaguchi's team is busy conjuring up his company's green solutions along their two preferred silos - carbon capture and hydrogen. It was a fascinating conversation, full length of which may be found here on Forbes. 

And there were dialogues a plenty, although some of the conversation was a bit tamer with many of the heavy hitters - sorry to say so - having already come and gone. 

Nonetheless, the bosses of National Grid, Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation, NRG Energy, Edison International and AES Corporation took the dialogue forward on utilities on Days IV and V and how to secure power in our complex world. 

'Crude' conversations were kept alive by a panel on Energy in Latin America with the bosses of Ecopetrol, Tecpetrol, and others partaking in discussions on some of the regional energy transition complexities, and bearing in mind that the global South needs to be included in all discussions. 

And finally, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy, who has been at CERAWeek all week, addressed the final day's leadership dialogue on "Alaska and the world." And that's a wrap for CERAWeek 2025. Keep reading, keep it here, keep it 'crude'! 

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© Gaurav Sharma 2025. Photo: Gaurav Sharma, Energy Analyst at Oilholics Synonymous (left) with Hitoshi Kaguchi, Senior EVP, President and CEO of GX solutions, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Group © Gaurav Sharma 2025.

Gastech Days III & IV: Harnessing the power of natural gas and climatetech

Over the course of Thursday and Friday - days III & IV - of Gastech 2024 that put us on the home stretch towards the conclusion of global event, many of the conversations revolved around climatetech and harnessing the power of natural gas as a destination fuel in the world's march to a low to a zero carbon future. 

An action packed agenda was underpinned by several movers and shakers in the natural gas space especially LNG terminal developers and operators from Venture Global LNG to Mexico Pacific. 

Meanwhile, energy major Shell emphatically declared its intentions of continuing to expand its global LNG portfolio predicated in its belief of an expected industry growth of 50% by 2040. It also noted that North America's total upcoming LNG exports alone could account for around 30% of global demand by 2030. 

Many thought leaders also echoed each others' belief that decarbonizing industry and transportation would involve natural gas in close step with emerging technologies. Yours truly hosted panels on both transport sector decarbonization as well as climatetech on Thursday. 

The first of these was titled - Decarbonizing heavy transportation: Collaborations to address the acceleration of climate technology solutions from development to deployment. The panellists included Sukhmal Jain, Director (Marketing) & Board Member, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited, Yoki Firnandi, CEO, PT Pertamina International Shipping, Meg Gentle, Executive Director, HIF Global and Mark S. Brownstein, SVP, Environmental Defense Fund. 

Decarbonizing heavy transport, specifically shipping, aviation and HGV remains a key challenge in addressing climate change. 

The panellists discussed how to steer the transport industry to net zero by 2050, robust strategies that will be needed to stimulate supportive policies, innovation in technologies and collaboration across the value chain to drive the adoption of low- and zero-carbon fuels.

We also discussed some of the barriers to investment in zero-emissions fuelling infrastructure, including biofuels, hydrogen and clean ammonia, which can pave the way for achieving their long-term supply and the climate benefits of decarbonization and some of the incentives that may be required. 

Next yours truly's attention turned to climatetech via a panel titled - Fostering greater climate technology innovation, deployment, and scale across the value chain. Eminent panellists included - Mahdi Aladel, CEO, Aramco Ventures, Paula Gant, President & CEO, GTI Energy and Vikas Dhole,  Vikas Dhole, GM of Project Management, AspenTech. 

Climatetech innovation holds the key to ensuring a significant decarbonization of energy systems and GHG emissions reductions. 

The panel deliberated how governments, the energy value chain and the emerging climate technology market overcome challenges related to scalability, matching market demand with new energy supply and a lack of the workforce skills needed to drive further adoption and deployment of low-carbon technologies.  

As proceedings began to wind down late on Wednesday and early Thursday, attention turned to passing the baton on to next year's Gastech destination - Milan - which was revealed as the next host city for Gastech 2025. 

Simon Ford, Vice President, Gastech, dmgevents, said this year's event had seen participation of attendees from over 150 countries, including 50 official government delegations. 

The occasion was marked a lovely launch evening party before everyone bid goodbye to H-Town following an insightful and fantastic energy event that will live long in the industry's memory. Well that's all from Gastech 2024. See you at Gastech 2025 in Milan. Keep reading, keep it here, keep it 'crude'! 

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© Gaurav Sharma 2024. Photo I: The George R. Brown Convention Center, Houston, Texas, U.S. - Venue of Gastech 2024. Photo II: Gastech 2024 Strategic Panel on Decarbonizing heavy transportation: Collaborations to address the acceleration of climate technology solutions from development to deployment moderated by Gaurav Sharma. Photo III: Gastech 2025 Launch Reception at The Corinthian, Houston, Texas, US. © Gaurav Sharma 2024. 

ADIPEC Day IV: Final notes from Abu Dhabi

The Oilholic has just rounded off day four, or the final day of ADIPEC 2019, here in Abu Dhabi concluding nearly a week of engaging industry dialogues.

Under the 'Oil and Gas 4.0' discussion umbrella, talking points ranged from upstream challenges to downstream efficiencies, digitisation to robotics, natural gas to hydrogen-powered mobility, oil demand [or perhaps lack of] to the changing nature of demand itself, and well pretty much all else in between. 

Summing up the last four days, Omar Suwaina Al Suwaidi, ADIPEC Conference Chairman, and Director, Executive Office Directorate at ADNOC, opined: "Through Oil and Gas 4.0, ADIPEC is unlocking the opportunities created by the Fourth Industrial Era. 

"To continue to thrive, it is critical that we better harness our data, utilise big data value-adding technology and innovation, capture digital insights to our business, and understand how all aspects of our operations and activities are interconnected to unlock greater value in the evolving energy landscape."

Amen to that sentiment, and the human resource and ingenuity at the heart of that progressive drive! Speaking of which, the crucial subject of gender diversity was under the microscope today. ADIPEC also received a presidential visit when Egypt's Abdel Fattah El Sisi, who is on an official visit to the UAE, came calling. 

This blogger also took some time out to leave the conference venue and pay a visit to the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company's (ADNOC) Panorama Command Centre at its headquarters (pictured above left) and meet the company's digital team that handles its operation. 

During the site visit, the Oilholic got a glimpse of how ADNOC is deploying advanced analytics and digital solutions to monitor throughput in real-time and learn lessons in order to improve efficiencies across its value chain. 

When we are talking of a company producing 3 million barrels per day of crude oil and 9.8 billion cubic feet of gas per day; that's quite a sizeable operation as the readers would acknowledge. A special thanks to Abdul Nasser Al Mughairbi, SVP of Digital at ADNOC, who spared his time to take The Oilholic around, answer questions and host yours truly to spectacular views from an office floor home to equally spectacular technological solutions. 

Away from the ADNOC HQ, one also got a first-hand feel of a 'drive thru fuel station' launched in UAE by ADNOC Distribution. The fuel service is called 'On The Go', which will allow motorists to purchase fuel products from the comfort of their car.

The service will be "complementary, and at no additional fees" motorists can shop at an ADNOC convenience store while their vehicle is getting filled, receive their shopping items in the vehicle and pay for it using a new Wi-Fi payment method! Now that's convenient. 

And concluding a hectic afternoon of walkabouts, before bidding goodbye to ADIPEC, the Oilholic also visited offshore support vessel QMS Bani Yas, a new jack up barge docked close to the event venue, right in time for sunset. Among other things, it was great to get to the vessel's helipad as well as understand operating procedures of a support ship of its size. 

Alas, that's all from ADIPEC 2019 folks. Its time to say goodbye and head for the flight home. Keep reading, keep it ‘crude’!

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© Gaurav Sharma 2019. Photo I: ADNOC Panorama Command Centre, Abu Dhabi, UAE. Photo II: View of Abu Dhabi, UAE from ADNOC Panorama Command Centre. Photo III: Concept mock-up of ADNOC Distribution's drive thru fuel station 'On The Go' at ADIPEC 2019. Photos III, IV and V: Offshore support vessel QMS Bani Yas docked off ADIPEC 2019 venue, Abu Dhabi, UAE © Gaurav Sharma, November 2019.