Conference Series on Energy Introduced
Under the leadership of Professor Rouben Indjikian, Webster Geneva Campus has launched a series of conferences devoted to the future of energy. The first such event entitled “What Future for Petroleum?” took place on January 19, 2017 and attracted managers, traders, financiers, consultants and other private sector representatives.
Mr. Ian Lundin, Chairman of Lundin Petroleum, opened the event with a keynote presentation on the outlook of supply of and demand for crude oil. Following Lundin’s introduction, Indjikian moderated an interactive debate between the keynote speaker, other panelists and an active and participative audience. In addition to Lundin, the panelists included: Christine Batruch, Vice President Corporate Responsibility, Lundin Petroleum; Victor Myakishev, Director Energy Technical, the CIS Region, IHS Markit; and Jan Roelofsen, President of Executive Committee, Geneva Petroleum Club.
The moderator structured the panel debate around the following questions: expected share of crude oil in global energy balance in coming decades; main trends in crude oil supply by OPEC and non OPEC petroleum exporters and demand from main importers and industries; crude oil price regime and the role of OPEC in it; impact of technological change in supply of and demand for petroleum; relationship between climate change and petroleum.
In addition, the panelists discussed whether the peak in petroleum consumption will come from demand, due to technological innovation and climate change policies, or from supply, due to reaching the frontiers of availability of petroleum reserves and their gradual decline.
Following this successful conference and the enthusiastic response from the professionals and academics present, Webster Geneva Campus plans to organize additional Energy and Commodity events—open to the public—to address key issues of business and technology.