Vanishing point
Hard-to-quantify shifts may be underway in global energy and the oil industry will ignore them at its peril
THE OIL industry has big problems – and they go deeper than $45-a-barrel Brent, the Doha debacle, corporate losses and the slump in upstream spending. In Paris on 21 April, energy executives, Opec officials and academics pitched up at a hotel for IFP and Petrostrategies’ annual oil summit. So did the protesters. They picked an odd target. The Paris summit is no showcase for Big Oil excess and the views from the dais were as sceptical of oil’s future as they were confident. How did an industry that keeps ambulances running and remains essential to global prosperity come to be as deplored as the tobacco business? Other industry assumptions have also been overturned. Four principles used to pre
Also in this section
9 January 2026
A shift in perspective is needed on the carbon challenge, the success of which will determine the speed and extent of emissions cuts and how industries adapt to the new environment
2 January 2026
This year may be a defining one for carbon capture, utilisation and storage in the US, despite the institutional uncertainty
23 December 2025
Legislative reform in Germany sets the stage for commercial carbon capture and transport at a national level, while the UK has already seen financial close on major CCS clusters
15 December 2025
Net zero is not the problem for the UK’s power system. The real issue is with an outdated market design in desperate need of modernisation
