In a couple of years, the Chinese will be seen as regular participants in international industry. Their companies have to report to shareholders as well as to the Chinese authorities. They need to make money, they have to be efficient.

We are living in a new age of energy supply anxiety.

The bulk of extra supplies that could be put into the market come from two places. One, they come from other Persian Gulf suppliers, of which Saudi Arabia is at the top of the list.

It's extraordinary how inventive one can be with ethanol right now.

We experienced similiar fears in the 1880s, at the end of World War I and II. And we ran out in the 1970s.

In a world of increasing interdependence, energy security will depend much on how countries manage their relations with one another. That is why energy security will be one of the main challenges of foreign policy in the years ahead. Oil and gas have always been political commodities.

So the major obstacle to the development of new supplies is not geology but what happens above ground: international affairs, politics, investment and technology.