A premium in the oil price of somewhere between 10 to 15 dollars a barrel reflects this heightened anxiety.

Even Silicon Valley investors have put well over a $1 billion in new energy technologies.

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.

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.

To meet the energy challenge requires the most important energy of all - human creativity. That's the real prize.

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

The North Sea was supposed to run out in the 1980s. Then in the 1990s. And now production is still on-line.