'Olympics of oil and gas' to kick off in Calgary amid growing climate scrutiny

On the heels of a summer in which heat records were smashed in North America and Europe, thousands of oil and gas industry executives, government officials and media representatives from around the world will converge on Calgary for the World Petroleum Congress.

As they gather for the five-day conference to discuss the future of the sector, they'll do so under growing climate scrutiny and concern. Their conference is themed with that in mind, titled Energy Transition: The Path to Net Zero.

"We've heard a lot of plans and a lot of rhetoric. There's a lot of both floating around out there. So what I'm really looking for is more clarity on the plans," said Warren Mabee, director of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Policy at Queen's University in Kingston, Ont.

Around 5,000 delegates from more than 100 countries are expected to attend the conference, which begins Sunday and runs until Thursday.

The event will see various high-profile officials in attendance, including Saudi Arabia Minister of Energy Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman Al-Saud, Canadian Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Jonathan Wilkinson and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, among others.

A number of heads of prominent oil and gas firms will also be present at the event, including ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods, Repsol CEO Josu Jon Imaz and Saudi Aramco CEO Amin Nasser.

The conference was previously hosted in 2000 in Calgary, when 1,000 protestors marched downtown, voicing environmental and human rights concerns. This year's event will make the city one of only four in the world that have hosted the conference twice, the other three being Moscow, Houston and London.

Calgary officials say they expect that the event will generate approximately $88 million of economic value to the city.

Beyond the delegates, it's also expected that the event will draw 15,000 unique visitors to the actual site, something that could represent a boost to the economy not long after the Calgary Stampede, according to Deborah Yedlin, president and CEO of the Calgary Chamber of Commerce.

"The hotels are full, restaurants will be busy, the airport is going to be very busy. I think there's small businesses that will benefit as well. So this is a big lift to the economy," Yedlin said.

Calgary was narrowly selected for the event against four other bidders. Richard Masson, who worked on the bid, said the event is the culmination of multiple years of work. 

"It's super complicated, there's no question about it," said Masson, who is chair of the World Petroleum Council in Canada.

This year's net-zero theme was Calgary's pitch to member countries in 2019. The event will revolve around industry perspectives tied to the challenges of the energy transition, according to Masson.

"This is a big challenge: 30 years of hard work, at least, to get to something approaching net-zero by 2050. But, you know, people are focused on it, their investors are focused on it, their regulators, their governments, other stakeholders are all focused on it," Masson said. "So that's what we're going to be talking about."