Energy bosses promise a 'demand decade' — and admit the cash is tricky

Energy chiefs gathered in Abu Dhabi see a boom coming — and a headache. At the ADIPEC energy conference, Baker Hughes CEO Lorenzo Simonelli told CNBC's Dan Murphy that AI, population growth and expanding developing economies point to a long stretch of rising consumption. His label for it: a 'demand decade.'

That demand should drag capital spending higher over time, Simonelli said on 'Access Middle East,' since feeding growing consumption takes more infrastructure. He expects industry activity to climb by a low-single-digit percentage in 2027. The Middle East conflict, he added, has made one thing clear about the system — 'it's going to have to be more resilient,' which means more storage, more pipelines and fewer choke points.

The money, though, is harder to move. RWE CEO Markus Krebber said AI and electrification are pushing electricity demand up, while geopolitical tensions, supply chain pressure and higher interest rates tangle up investment calls. 'You have huge investment opportunity, but on the other hand, a very challenging investment environment,' he said during a separate ADIPEC panel. Asked about planned computing capacity and the power to run it, Krebber predicted it 'probably comes slow.'

BP CEO Meg O'Neill flagged the wild spread in global energy demand forecasts, a big deal when new oil and gas projects take years to build and then pump for decades. She also pointed to oil price uncertainty, saying BP has to plan for a lower-price world. The tension between those projections and the spending decisions they drive ran through the conference floor.

Schneider Electric CEO Olivier Blum said some Persian Gulf projects have already slowed because of the Middle East conflict, but argued the mid-term case for more infrastructure has actually strengthened. On the other side of the ledger sits supply: Richard Bronze, co-founder and head of geopolitics at consultancy Energy Aspects, told CNBC the market could swing into oversupply in 2027 and 2028 — assuming Middle Eastern flows get back to normal.