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

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

The starting point for energy security today as it has always been is diversification of supplies and sources.

First, we have to find a common vocabulary for energy security. This notion has a radically different meaning for different people. For Americans it is a geopolitical question. For the Europeans right now it is very much focused on the dependence on imported natural gas.

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

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.

But the key thing is that Iraq, while it's got very large oil reserves, has marginalized itself as an oil exporter and these days its exports are only about one tenth that of neighboring Saudi Arabia.