Iran war looms over global energy summit

Surging oil and gas prices tied to Middle East tensions will hang over a Houston gathering next week that is one of the global energy industry’s biggest annual events. The conference attracts more than 10,000 attendees from nearly half the world’s countries. Daniel Yergin, vice chairman of S&P Global, has been the face of the CERAWeek conference throughout its entire run of more than four decades. Yergin traces the roots of today’s tensions back to 1979, when strikes by Iranian oil workers helped topple the Shah — Iran’s U.S.-backed monarch — and disrupted global supply, reshaping the geopolitics of energy for decades to come.”It’s not the nightmare scenario,” Yergin said in our interview about today’s war with Iran. What is the nightmare scenario? “This persists for more than weeks,” Yergin replied. It’s not hyperbole to say that the trajectory of the war could be altered by conversations — both on the main stage and behind closed doors — that happen in Houston next week. Probable attendees include Energy Secretary Chris Wright; United Arab Emirates Minister Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, who’s also CEO of the country’s state-backed oil company; and retired Gen. Jim Mattis, who was Secretary of Defense during Trump’s first term. By the time the Houston gathering concludes on March 27, it will have been four weeks — or one full month — since Trump launched strikes on Iran.