Certainly not BP’s Browne, who offered a litany of E&ampPtechnology advances. “In real terms, oil prices today are more than40% below where they stood a decade ago and comparable to levelslast seen before the Yom Kippur War 25 years ago. The reason we’reall still in business is that average finding, development andlifting costs have all fallen – on average by almost a third inreal terms over the last decade.”

Besides driving costs down, technology has driven E&ampP deeper,growing reserves along the way. “Over 30 billion barrels ofdiscovered but undeveloped oil lie in deep water together with over150 Tcf of gas. The best independent estimates say that at least asmuch again remains to be found in those areas.”

On the demand side, worldwide environmental concerns will createa larger role for natural gas, said Lay. “Combined cycle technologyfor power generation – particularly with natural gas – is thecleanest fuel source available and accounts for 60% of total newinstalled capacity in the U.S. since 1991.” Lay pointed outcombined cycle gas plants cost less to build than coal, about $500per kWh compared to a new coal plant, which costs $1,066 per kWh.

Before 2010, Lay said gas is expected to overtake coal to becomethe second most widely used fuel in the world behind oil. “Gas isabundant – at today’s worldwide production rate of 77 Tcf/year,potential gas resources have a 200-year life and the potential isprobably significantly understated.

“According to a recent Enron study, 44 countries have announcedrequirements for clean power plants from gas and renewablestotaling 222,500 megawatts of new capacity over the 1997 to 2015time frame.”

Lay highlighted technological advances impacting every part ofthe energy industry. Automated electricity metering, for instance,introduced to the market last year, is more precise and improvesload management ability. “These meters diagnose outages, bill withgreater accuracy, protect against tampering and make it easier forcustomers to change suppliers. Lay said Enron introduced the firsttwo-way automated electricity metering system last year.

“With technology, innovation and vision, our transition to acleaner world will be seamless, our products and services will begreatly improved. we will protect the environment from millions oftons of harmful emissions. and consumers will save billions.”

Joe Fisher, Houston

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