Ben van Beurden, CEO of Shell Speaking to the Oil and Money conference in London, in November, Ben van Beurden, CEO of Shell, speaks about the global evolution underway in response to climate change and the need for the energy industry to embrace it.
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he day before he spoke at the conference Ben van Beurden had accepted the award for Energy Executive of the Year. At that event he spoke about evolution. Both his own evolution as a person, his career and, more importantly the evolution of the oil and gas industry. “I believe evolution is to be embraced,” he says. “It is about change for the better, and it is inevitable. An indication of this evolution is the energy transition that is sweeping through the oil and gas sector, aptly highlighted by the fact that as of next year, the Oil and Money conference itself will have evolved to become the Energy Intelligence Forum. It is a name that rings true to van Beurden,
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reflecting the current thinking within the sector. “I like the new name,” he says. “It feels in tune with the changing times. And it feels like it should stand the stand the test of the next 40 years. Perhaps the evolution is overdue. There is so much more to our industry than oil and money. It could have changed to ‘Oil and Gas and Money’ some time ago. “There is so much that we do, although I have to admit that rebranding the conference to “Oil and Gas and Solar and Wind and Biofuels and Batteries and Hydrogen and Money”, would have been a bit much. But, energy is the right word and Intelligence is the right word too. The world desperately needs intelligence to make a successful energy
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transition to a lower-carbon future. We, as an industry, need intelligence too. And I mean that in more than one sense of the word. “The need for brain power is obvious enough. The world needs brain power to produce the many different innovations needed to meet the challenge of the energy transition. It needs brain power to take the opportunities those innovations will present. But we, both our industry and our world, also need intelligence in another sense: knowledge. And that is why ‘Forum’ is also the right word for the rebrand of this conference. The energy industry needs a forum. A place we can stretch our brains, challenge preconceptions and seek and share knowledge.”
