Executive Summary

The Arab Gulf States in Washington held its seventh annual Petro Diplomacy conference via Zoom from October 19-21, 2021. The event explored the ways in which the Gulf Arab oil producers are adapting their policies to manage the energy transition and the growing drive toward carbon neutrality and considered what contribution they can make to the decarbonization effort. The global economy is on the mend after the bruising effects of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, but the oil and gas industry is still in recovery and trying to find its place in a world striving for carbon neutrality.

The conference opened with a conversation between Ambassador Douglas A. Silliman, AGSIW president, and Mohammed bin Khalifa bin Ahmed Al Khalifa, Bahraini minister of oil and gas, who provided the perspective of a small island kingdom that produces oil and gas while trying to mitigate the impacts of climate change. The first of three sessions that followed addressed the evolution of the roles of national oil companies and international oil companies and how they are adapting their businesses to manage the energy transition. The second session explored the future of natural gas and renewable energy, while the third covered the geopolitical implications of the energy transition on oil producers and the future of the OPEC+ alliance of OPEC and non-OPEC oil producers.

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About Petro Diplomacy

This paper is the report for the 2021 Petro Diplomacy conference. For the seventh consecutive year, AGSIW convened its Petro Diplomacy conference, held virtually for the second year running due to the coronavirus pandemic. The conference brought together private and public sector stakeholders from the United States, Europe, and the Gulf Arab countries to discuss the energy transition and ways in which the Gulf petrostates are positioning themselves for a net-zero environment.