The world’s biggest oil and gas conference, OTC, convenes in Houston in the coming days, with the industry feeling confident but not complacent.

Saudi Aramco has planted a flag at the top of the wider corporate tree by revealing it made profits of $111 billion last year. That makes it almost twice as profitable as tech giant Apple, which usually steals all the global media plaudits when it comes to money-making.

The Saudi figures have been kept under wraps historically but emerged as part of disclosures needed for a public bond offering.

Another media-shy operator, Gazprom of Russia, has itself just reported some stellar numbers as gas exports to Europe soar.

However, most international industry players have been through a slightly mixed first quarter.

ExxonMobil reported a 50% slump in earnings during the first three months, while Chevron’s dipped 27%. BP profits were also down by almost a third.

More positively, production has generally been up — 2% at ExxonMobil and 7% at Chevron — while capital expenditure soared from $4.87 billion to $6.89 billion at ExxonMobil.

Meanwhile, the world’s largest oil and gas services provider, Schlumberger, reported first-quarter net income down — from $525 million to $421 million.

Chief executive Paal Kibsgaard blamed the transportation bottlenecks in the US shale lands for part of this decline. Rival Halliburton saw its fortunes soar, with earnings up from $46 million to $152 million, but the 2018 figures were distorted by special circumstances. Halliburton wrote off its entire investments in Venezuela during that quarter last year.

And McDermott continued to spread a bit of gloom when it reported a first-quarter net loss of $70 million, though this was mainly due to restructuring as its forward order book reached a healthy $6.7 billion in value. Oslo-based engineering group Aker Solutions reported better than-expected first-quarter profits and raised its 2019 revenue outlook on the back of higher exploration and production spending by field operators.

Analysts now expect offshore spending to be up 5% this year, rising to 15% in 2020 but Aker chief executive Luis Araujo warned there is still significant overcapacity of rigs, support vessels and seismic vessels.

In recent weeks, the price of oil has continued to rise on the back of geopolitical worries, but volatility remains a watchword.

US President Donald Trump’s recent threat to try and block Iran’s remaining oil exports sent global prices soaring. A claim on Twitter that he had extracted a promise from Opec to increase production then brought a sharp downward correction in crude values.

West Texas Intermediate remains at almost $65 per barrel and Brent blend at $73, almost exactly where it was this time last year. This is certainly a comfortable level for OTC delegates gathered to discuss the theme of the opening programme: The Next 50 Years.

Leading industry figures such as Baker Hughes' Maria Claudia Borras and Susan Dio of BP America are scheduled to discuss “the brave new world of digitalisation, automation and machine learning”.

These are all key issues that are already beginning to transform the cost and efficiency of offshore exploration and production.

There are also interesting sessions on foreign licensing prospects in an Around the World Series. Looking back, you have to say OTC is itself one of the oil and gas industry’s great survivors and winners. It is surely a happy golden anniversary.

Weekly

OTC can celebrate golden anniversary