OPINION: When SBM Offshore chief executive Bruno Chabas delivered a message about energy security and investments to the Rio Oil & Gas event in October, he chose an appropriate setting.

In essence, he said the Western reawakening to a need to balance concerns about carbon neutrality and sustainability with those of energy security must be accompanied by a clear-eyed and pragmatic view of financing, if the dangers of under-investment are to be addressed.

The deep-water sector was held up as the most salient example of this trend, with big and productive fields that lend themselves to lower carbon intensity production and lower break-even, but place enormous capital demands.