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

The Russians are turning east to the Chinese - to the Europeans' surprise. It always seemed to me that the relationship between Russia and China would shift from being based in Marx and Lenin to being based in oil and gas.

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.

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

According to one study by the United States Geological survey, 86 percent of oil reserves in the United States are the result not of what is estimated at the time of discovery but of the revisions and additions that come with further development.

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.