The lessons from Houston are clear: energy, technology, and geopolitics have converged, and they aren’t separating again.
The companies that come through this will be those that close the gap between boardroom ambition and field-level capability, not next year, but now. The window is measured in months. The operators who embed intelligence where work actually happens will define this era. Everyone else will be reading about them at next year’s conference.
I’ve been to a lot of energy conferences throughout my career, and CERAWeek 2026 was different. Not because of the speakers, or because of the panels. But because of what was happening outside downtown Houston while everyone was gathered inside at CERAWeek, one of the world’s preeminent energy summits.
The Strait of Hormuz was effectively closed and tanker traffic had dropped 70%. Iran had attacked over 20 merchant ships causing Brent crude to blow past $100 on its way to $126 a barrel. In response, the IEA coordinated its largest-ever strategic reserve release – 400 million barrels – after confirming that 11 million barrels per day had been removed from global supply, more than the twin oil shocks of the 1970s combined. Over 10,000 energy leaders from 89 countries gathered in Houston that week, and for the first time at a conference like this, the disruption wasn’t a scenario exercise. It was the news.
Resilience Redefined: From Backup Plans to Real-Time Decisions
Daniel Yergin, CERAWeek chairman and vice chairman of S&P Global, framed the conference around “Convergence and Competition” – the collision of energy, technology, and geopolitics. But the word I kept hearing in every hallway conversation wasn’t “transition” or “net zero”, but “resilience”. And not resilience in the traditional sense like backup systems or contingency plans. Resilience as in the ability to make fast, intelligent decisions when the world stops behaving predictably. Shell CEO Wael Sawan captured it directly: “You cannot have national security without energy security.”
The AI Execution Gap: Where Strategy Stops and Reality Begins
The most striking pattern I observed? The execution gap. Every major operator now has an AI executive and a board-approved digital strategy. Far fewer have AI at the ground level – in the hands of the field crews who actually run the assets. According to Bernstein, the investment research firm, only 13% of oil and gas companies have deployed agentic AI in operations. Another 49% say they plan to this year. That gap between intent and action is where billions in value are being created or destroyed right now, while volatility, supply shocks, and an aging workforce that is retiring faster than it can be replaced continue to accelerate.
A New Mandate for Operators: Act Faster Than the Uncertainty
This is the part that doesn’t get enough attention. The workforce crisis and the AI opportunity are the same problem. Experienced operators are leaving. The knowledge they carry such as how a compressor sounds before it fails, which valve sequence matters in an emergency walks out the door with them. AI that’s embedded in workflows, trusted by technicians, and directly supporting operational decisions isn’t a digital strategy. It’s how you preserve institutional knowledge and keep assets running when the people who built them are gone.
Looking Ahead
The lessons from Houston are clear: energy, technology, and geopolitics have converged, and they aren’t separating again. The companies that come through this will be those that close the gap between boardroom ambition and field-level capability not next year, but now. The window is measured in months. The operators who embed intelligence where work actually happens will define this era. Everyone else will be reading about them at next year’s conference.
SOURCE: Herman Nieuwoudt (2026 April 2) Reflections from CERAWeek 2026: Resilience in the Age of Uncertainty. IFS Blog. https://blog.ifs.com/reflections-from-ceraweek-2026-resilience-in-the-age-of-uncertainty
