The seventeenth annual Calgary Energy Roundtable conference will take place on Wednesday, May 25th at the Westin Hotel.
Despite higher energy prices, energy investment in Canada remains well below historical averages. The challenges of the past several years have pushed companies to innovate, to lower their costs and consolidate where it made sense to do so. Canadian producers are now awash in free cash flow and looking to deploy this capital, whether it be share buy backs, dividend increases or investment in emissions reduction technologies.
Investors have become more vocal against energy sector spending for financial and ESG reasons, and judicial pressures to limit carbon dioxide emissions. Yet global oil demand has returned to pre-pandemic levels and prices are currently hovering around $80 USD barrel, with some market watchers are calling for $100 a barrel oil in 2022, as the world faces a supply crunch driven primarily by a lack of investment in new production.
Buoyed by strong demand and tight supply, the natural gas price rally this year has been impressive. The trend towards decarbonization is bullish for natural gas, as it is considered by many a “bridge fuel” on the road to eventually reaching the objective of net-zero emissions.
Coming out of COP 26 in Glasgow, Canadian climate change policies will seek to cap oil and gas emissions on a path to limiting, and eventually ending, the production and use of fossil fuels. Yet while it can be fashionable to argue that the demise of oil and gas is upon us, global energy transitions will last for decades. There are many competing energy technologies on the race to net zero and the mix of energy types that will allow us to achieve cost-effective carbon emissions reduction and economic growth is unclear.
At the seventeenth annual Calgary Energy Roundtable conference a high-powered line-up of speakers will share their insights on how the Canadian energy sector will evolve and the role will it play in the country’s, and the world’s, energy future. Topics will include:
• The Energy Outlook: Markets and Consolidation
• The Role for Canadian Energy – Domestically and Abroad
• Getting to Net Zero: Policy Implications for Canadian energy
• Technical Readiness
• Grid Stability and Energy System Optimization
Networking Reception
Tuesday, May 25th from 5:00 – 7:00 pm – Eau Clarie Room, Westin Hotel
Calgary Energy Roundtable Conference
Wednesday, May 25th, Grand Ballroom, Calgary Westin Hotel, 320-4th Avenue SW
| Conference chair | Jason Langrish, President, The Energy Roundtable | |
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| 7:30 am | Registration. Light breakfast served | |
| 8:00 am | Opening remarks | |
| 8:15 am | The Energy Outlook: Markets and Consolidation. The key question for oil and gas producers now that the world’s demand for fossil energy has come back is how long it will stay there? In the short term, the picture looks rosy. The oil sector is consolidating and has weathered the Covid storm and many Canadian oil producers have reinvented themselves from growth-oriented explorers to dividend-payers. Natural gas markets are stronger than they have been in years, and a range of initiatives, from petrochemicals to hydrogen offer promise for energy demand. Stuttering US shale production and under investment in supplies elsewhere will potentially increase the value of supplies in western, open countries like Canada. Yet despite predictions of an increase in global demand for fossil energy, many new energy projects are a non-starters as governments pledge deep decarbonization and investors sour on fossil fuels. The panel will examine how the competitiveness of the Canadian energy sector has remained competitive in these volatile times and will provide perspectives on oil and gas development in Canada going forward.
Discussion led by: tbc |
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| 9:00 am | Fireside chat | |
| 9:45 am | Getting to Zero: Policy Implications for Canadian Energy. Over 60 countries, including Canada, have pledged to achieve net-zero emissions within the next thirty years. Yet it’s impossible to ignore Canada’s dismal track record when it comes to setting and meeting targets. Now that the government has legislated Canada’s commitment to achieve this goal by 2050 and has plans to cap oil and gas emissions, opinions vary on what the path forward should be, especially when it’s unrealistic to expect a transition to a 100 per cent knowledge economy when the bulk of Canada’s wealth has been — and continues to be — driven by resources. Energy transition is expected to take decades and Canada needs to figure out what achieving net zero practically means for the country and its energy industry. We do know that hitting net zero requires making big reductions in our emissions through shifting away from burning fossil fuels and replacing them with lower-carbon alternatives and by using new technologies that capture, store, and utilize carbon. The panel will examine the details of what net zero means for Canada and how we plan to get there.
Discussion led by: tbc |
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| 10:30 am | Networking break | |
| 11:00 am | Technical Readiness. Energy companies are facing an unprecedented convergence of technological, social, and regulatory forces. Area such as artificial intelligence, data and automation are reshaping standard business architectures. Technologies such as energy storage, CCUS, hydrogen and SMRs have the potential to reshape energy ecosystems. When energy technology is covered in the media, we are told about the problems with existing alternative technologies and the amazing potential of the new technology. And if this new and perfect solution is coming up, why would we bother persevering with today’s non-perfect solutions? But we rarely hear about how much risk there is that it won’t work as expected, or how long it might take until it becomes available to use. This is important because we don’t have time to wait for the future’s perfect technologies, as we need action now. The panel will discuss how we can develop more realistic expectations about new technologies and their implementation.
Discussion led by: tbc |
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| 12:00 pm | Luncheon with Keynote address | |
| 1:30 pm | Fireside chat | |
| 2:00 pm | Grid Stability and System Optimization. Electricity provides a tremendous potential competitive advantage in a world focused on carbon reduction, including in the fossil fuels sector. Canada has abundant capacity to create and distribute electricity but remains a patchwork of systems improvised over time with disparate outcomes. The evolution of energy systems and integration of high-tech solutions is creating rapidly growing markets for new products. Given this tension between legacy assets and disruptive technologies how do you ensure you the system at a whole provides value and achieves decarbonization in a cost-effective manner? The panel will examine what a holistic approach to electrification and energy system optimization looks like, including how we can best utilize existing assets, determine what is missing and redeploy capital to ensure meaningful transformation in the Canadian power space, and the energy sector more broadly.
Discussion led by: tbc |
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| 3:00 pm | Close by Jason Langrish, President, The Energy Roundtable |
Click here for photos from the 2019 Calgary Energy Roundtable
