The giant energy conference CERAWeek by IHS Markit is in full swing in Houston, with energy types from all over the globe convening in the Hilton Americas downtown with spillover in the adjoining George R. Brown Convention Center.
About 5,000 are expected to attend, versus 4,300 last year, hearing speakers cover the ins and outs of oil, natural gas, power and renewable energy.
What there isn’t a lot of at the conference, however, is lawyers.
It used to be that Vinson & Elkins, Baker Botts and others would send delegates, many of whom would speak on panels (V&E was a “participating organization” for several years, the last one being in 2017).
The conference doesn’t share its participant list with the media, but Sidley Austin partner Dave Asmus of Houston was seen in the crowd on Monday trying to get into one panel discussion.
The reason there are less lawyers in attendance is simple: It’s expensive to hobnob with oil ministers, government and elected officials and company CEOs. The Houston Chronicle reported last year that the price of a ticket reached $8,250. “Pay to play” sponsorships, of course, are even more expensive.
But for lawyers, like Asmus, who work on international energy deals and projects with strategics (before becoming a lawyer Asmus worked as a geophysicist), it’s worthwhile to meet up with overseas clients and former colleagues. One of those for Asmus is Henrik Gordenker, chairman of Japanese electric company JERA Co., who previously was in private practice at White & Case in Tokyo in the early 2000’s (Gordenker is speaking Thursday).
As usual, investment bankers are in attendance. They include Credit Suisse, whose Houston banker Osmar Abib spoke on a Monday panel and was scheduled to speak again on Tuesday, and Tudor, Pickering, Holt, which had several of its bankers speaking on different panels, including chairman Bobby Tudor and CEO Maynard Holt of Houston.
Bankers from Morgan Stanley and Société Générale also were in attendance, as in past years, but HSBC and Jefferies weren’t on the “participant” list, as they had been previously.
Private equity firms – sporting newfound power in the form of $1 billion-plus funds – also are joining in, including Carlyle, Blackstone, NGP and Ares, who all had folks speaking on panels. But past participants like Energy Capital Partners, CSL Management and First Reserve weren’t among the speakers.
CERAWeek’s theme this year is “New World of Rivalries: Reshaping the Energy Future.”
Those various conflicts could be seen and heard about on Monday, including conventional fuels versus renewables, returns versus growth, pipeline developers against environmentalists, traditional operating processes versus technology-aided ones and the U.S. – an emerging oil and gas superpower with its burgeoning shale resources – seemingly against everyone else, mostly the Arab nations and Russia.
“Climate change is happening,” Elder Sætre, CEO of Norwegian oil and gas giant Equinor (formerly known as Statoil), said at a luncheon address on Monday. “As an industry, we are much better off acting ourselves instead of having others act on us.”
Texas Lawbook senior M&A writer Claire Poole is at CERAWeek all week and will have periodic updates.