The transformation of the US as the world’s largest producer of oil and gas has been the biggest success story of the global energy markets in recent years. US crude production has risen over 65% since 2008, accounting for all net increase in world crude since 2005. The hope for the global economy is that the country’s energy boom will continue. Yet the future is uncertain. With oil prices in freefall, signs of a slowdown across the US shale industry are mounting. How far can prices fall for production to be maintained? How long can Middle East producers hold out at current low prices? Will the oil price recover,and if so, how will the rebound come about? How sustainable is the shale transformation?

Harold Hamm, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Continental Resources, Inc.
Adam Sieminski, Administrator, US Energy Information Administration 
Bill Powers, Author, "Cold, Hungry and in the Dark: Exploding the Natural Gas Supply Myth"

With LNG exports from the US already underway, attention is now turning to the potential for export of US crude. The recent exports of light crude condensates from the US this summer represents a momentous change in the country’s four decade ban on crude exports, with the potential for the US to entry the global stage as a significant oil exporter. The turnaround has important potential consequences for the economy, energy trade, and energy prices and for US international relations: what are the pros and cons of US energy exports, and the potential for the US to become a significant exporter of oil and gas? What will be the impact on global LNG trade, on global crude flow and on gas and oil price differentials? What are the economic implications and how would it redefine America’s place in the world and international relations?  How do they fit with the US government’s attempts to instill climate resilience on overseas markets with which it will trade?

In the midst of all the excitement regarding US shale gas and tight oil it is easy to forget America’s second revolution. Solar prices have dropped to a point where they are reaching grid parity and price competitiveness with fossil fuels for power generation, not only in parts of the US, but in an increasing number of markets across the globe. Distributed energy is already eating into revenues and partly marginalising traditional, fossil fuel power generation. Yet the seemingly relentless focus on fossil fuels and the abundance which it potentially provides casts an uneasy shadow over the prospects of clean energy. How will clean energy investments hold up against falling fossil fuel prices? Or is the future bright for clean energy? With Paris climate talks ahead, how likely are we to reach an agreement, and what difference could it make to the balance between fossil fuels and clean energy in the energy mix? What is the future for fossil fuel generation and what do the lessons of Germany’s energy transition tell about how the market might develop? Can fossil fuels, efficiency and renewable peacefully ‘co-exist’-is gas the’ bridge’ to a new energy future or a ‘bridge to nowhere’ as some have claimed? What are the implications for energy policy?  

Michael Levi, David M.Rubenstein Senior Fellow for Energy, Council on Foreign Relations
Carol Browner, Leadership Council, Nuclear Matters

With uncertainties in the US and global markets increasing, our panel of leading financial experts share their views on both the risks and the opportunities facing the industry. How do they see investment patterns changing in the face of growing oil price volatility and potential future carbon constraints? Will debt and equity markets continue to support shale production? Will they be persuaded by the arguments in favour of fossil fuel divestment, and what will be the likely impact of this emerging trend? Will the disinvestment from fossil fuels necessarily lead to increased investment in clean energy? What will be needed to encourage investment on the scale needed to meet future energy challenges, and what are the innovative financing models, mechanisms and business models emerging for investment across oil. gas and clean energy?

Poppy Allonby, Managing Director, BlackRock Investment Management
Ian Simm, Founder and Chief Executive, Impax Asset Management
Maynard Holt, Co-President, Head of E&P Investment Banking, Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co