Oil companies focusing on being oil companies

Persistent demand and the importance of the bottom line bring hydrocarbon investment back into focus

From its earliest days in the mid-19th century, oil and gas has always been an industry of trends. Most often, the trends develop due to new resource discoveries, technological advancement or, as we have seen in 2023, in response to evolving market pressures. One of the most remarkable takeaways from this year’s Ceraweek conference was a shifting trend in the messaging by industry senior executives who spoke at the event, which took place in Houston in early March. The messages from big company execs in previous years had gone out of their way to focus on ESG scores, emissions reduction and allocating more capital to investments in green projects outside of their firms’ core competencies. Ho