Elizabeth Trovall

So Sierra Week is an annual global energy conference, like major global energy conference put on by S&P Global.

It takes place in downtown Houston.

And, you know, it's top executives in the world of oil, gas, utilities, car companies.

Like we're talking the, you know, CEOs of the Fords and Chevrons of the world are coming to Houston for this conference.

And, you know, also politicians, folks like Energy Secretary Chris Wright and former Secretary of State John Kerry.

And just real quick, also the tickets to attend like the main conference, I just want to say, are $11,000.

Press, of course, does not have to pay $11,000.

But yeah, that's how much people are paying to just get in to attend this conference.

The vibes were interesting.

Like, you know, it was a bit tense.

Restrained, hesitant.

And there's just there's just something weird.

I was talking to my former colleague at the Houston Chronicle, Amanda Drain.

She and I were talking about how it's just like kind of weird to be looking at like the front page of like the journal and the New York Times and seeing like this war imagery and then to be at this like buttoned up conference where people are wearing suits that are like more expensive than my car, you know, and like a lot of a lot of things go unsaid at these things.

But at the same time, geopolitics and instability were still like very much the center of the conference conversation.

Like what's happening in the Middle East is at the top of everybody's minds.

Like how long will this go on and how much will it reshape the global energy industry?

Yeah.

So I feel like the CEO of ConocoPhillips, Ryan Lance, kind of had explained it well of like headwinds have become tailwinds.

Right.