As the leader in the Cable & Wire Industry we are now working in partnership with World Energy Source, who will supply us with new key interviews each month.
The World Energy Source allows industry leaders worldwide to express their views in their own words.
World Energy has been at the forefront of key issues, from manpower shortages to global warming to pricing of crude and natural gas.
The result is a window into the heart and soul of the industry, available for anyone who wishes to look inside
Energy for the Generations
by Jeroen van der Veer
Chief Executive
Royal Dutch Shell plc
Reflecting on the relationship between food and energy (biofuels, to be precise) provides a good introduction to an important dilemma: how to secure energy that is clean, cheap and convenient – the three Cs – for ourselves and future generations.
Late last year, I noticed a tiny newspaper report about a Chinese government decision to limit the conversion of corn into ethanol. The reason was that ethanol production was beginning to compete too much with food production. Instead, China now intends to produce ethanol from the less tasty crops of sorghum and cassava. Another story told of a tortilla war in Mexico. Tortillas, of course, are made from corn, much of which Mexico imports from the United States. Domestic corn production suffered a decline in the 1990s, when cheaper U.S. corn flooded the Mexican market. But now the situation is reversed. The United States, in an effort to reduce oil imports, uses nearly a quarter of its corn yield for the production of ethanol. The global price of corn has risen to the highest level in 10 years, and this has translated into a higher price for tortillas. Millions of poor Mexicans are the unintended victims.
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Navigating the Investment Challenge
by Peter J. Robertson
Vice Chairman
Chevron Corporation
Investment is a crucial issue facing the global energy industry. Here I will address the scale and scope of the investment challenge that we face and offer some suggestions on how to navigate it.
The fundamental driver of the current investment cycle, clearly, is the growth in global demand for energy.
The Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates that between 2003 and 2030, the world will increase its use of energy by 71 percent. Growth in energy demand will be particularly strong in the developing world, which includes several billion people whose rightful first step out of poverty is access to basic energy supplies.
Investment Cycles: What's Different Now?
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The Purpose of Business
by Lord Browne of Madingley
Group Chief Executive
BP p.l.c.
I am aware of two overly simplified views about the role of business, and I believe they are both wrong. The first says the purpose of business is to make money and to deliver something called shareholder value. The second says we should do those things, but also that, to balance what by implication we are taking out of society in the form of profits, we should pursue a programme of "corporate social responsibility" – a programme of good works and philanthropy which is distinct from the business we are actually doing.
Why are those ideas too simple?
First, I do not think a business which just generated money would be a very good business. It would not invest in the future, for one thing; it would not develop people, ideas, markets or new products. Business is surely about the long term and not just about tomorrow.
Second, responsibility is not something to be added on as an afterthought or as a public-relations gloss.
Business is about something more complex. I believe a good, successful business is part of society and exists to meet society's needs. That is the purpose of business at the highest level.
We in business need to make money to reward those who have trusted us with their investment, but that is not our primary purpose. We also need to behave responsibly, but I think responsibility comes through what we do and the way we do it, not by adding on some extra activity or by adopting distracting concepts such as the triple bottom line.
We are fulfilling our purpose by supplying goods and services at a price people can afford and in a manner which makes the activity sustainable. That is complex rather than simple, but it is how business really works.
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Natural Gas: A Key to Global Energy Security
by David J. O'Reilly
Chairman and CEO
Chevron Corporation
Although oil has dominated the world's energy portfolio for the past century, natural gas has become an important contributor to the global energy industry. While overall global energy demand is expected to increase by 50 percent during the next 20 years, demand for natural gas is projected to increase nearly 70 percent.
Projects now underway, such as long-distance pipelines, gas-to-liquids fuels (GTL) and liquefied natural gas (LNG), will deliver the promise of natural gas to a world that needs all the energy it can get to fuel economic growth and human progress. The aspiration toward growth and progress underscores one of the most critical issues we face today.
That issue is energy security. Sustainable development is a long-term imperative, but energy security is a near-term necessity. The debate about energy security – and the solutions we come up w– will help determine the quality of life for millions of human beings. And it will determine, in part, whether the global economic expansion we are experiencing today can be sustained.
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Meeting the Need for Affordable and Reliable Electricity
by Samuel Wright Bodman
U.S. Secretary of Energy
President George W. Bush has always said the private sector is the key to securing a strong and stable energy sector. I want to affirm our commitment to working with the power-generation, transmission and distribution industry to meet the nation's need for affordable and reliable electricity.
The administration's approach to enhanced energy security covers three broad areas: increasing the supply of energy from clean, alternative power sources; improving energy efficiency so we can do more with less; and both upgrading and modernizing our energy infrastructure.
Clean Power Sources
Let me begin with the logical first step: creating the energy sources we need to maintain a healthy, growing economy. The president's Advanced Energy Initiative calls for additional spending – beginning with a 22 percent increase next year – to speed the development of alternative and renewable energy sources. We are focusing on wind and solar power, cellulosic ethanol, lithium ion batteries for use in hybrid-powered vehicles, and hydrogen fuel cells
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World Energy Source 
