Amin Nasser, head of the world's largest oil company, had been listed as delivering a keynote address at CERAWeek, the largest gathering of high-profile oil executives and energy ministers.
Nasser was one of the few high-level Saudi officials on this year's schedule and has been a regular presence at past CERAWeek conferences.
The agenda for this year's event is dominated by major oil company executives and US government officials, with fewer Middle East executives and officials.
A record 7,000 people have signed up for the week-long event, which includes discussions of fossil fuels, clean energy and advanced energy storage.
Recent clashes over supply and demand between the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, Europe (OPEC) and the US have led to some visible vacancies. Unlike in past years, the event's agenda has no oil ministers from Iraq, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates or Russia.
Top energy executives and officials from around the world will descend on Houston as the political fallout from Russia's invasion of Ukraine a year ago continues to distort global oil supply lines and put long-term energy security front of mind for governments.
Oil company chiefs and ministers will make their case for investment in all forms of energy - fossil fuels and renewables - to meet rising demand and at the same time accelerate the move toward the low-carbon industry of the future.
The war in Ukraine sparked a rally in crude oil and fuel prices that led to record industry profits, prompting the US government and others to accuse Big Oil of profiteering and for Britain and some other governments to impose windfall taxes on energy companies.
Big Oil executives and US government officials will likely trade blows publicly again as they did at last year’s event. While the US and many Western governments continue to call on oil firms to pump more, executives at top oil firms say they have a duty to their shareholders to maximize returns for staying invested in an industry which faces an uncertain long-term future.
"We will get a sense of how companies' strategies have been changed by the events of the last year," said Dan Yergin, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author and vice chairman of conference organizer S&P Global, in an interview.
BP's Looney will share the stage with Hertz car-rental CEO Stephen Scherr, whose firm has become an energy transition champion with plans to buy tens of thousands of electric vehicles from General Motors, Polestar and Tesla.
"The industry is on board with the energy transition, ESG and decarbonization, but there is a recognition that we are going to need hydrocarbons from an energy reliability and security standpoint," Pat Jelinek, EY Americas oil and gas leader, said of the return to prominence of Big Oil executives.
Top shale executives also will get less of the limelight. US shale also battled with the Biden administration over oil drilling restrictions and a lower investment in new output. Shale has become less of a factor in global markets, and tensions between OPEC and shale are less intense than they used to be.
Executives from shale bigs Hess Corp, EQT Corp and Pioneer Natural Resources last year dined with the late OPEC Secretary General Mohammad Barkindo. He received a gift bottle of "Genuine Barnett Shale," the oilfield that launched the shale revolution.
US shale also has been overshadowed by Big Oil as the companies grapple with slower gains and tight-fisted investors. Total US oil production is forecast to rise modestly this year - less than 600,000 bpd – as compared to a jump of about 2 million-bpd in 2018.
“US exploration and production companies have moderated growth," said Andy Hendricks, CEO of US driller Patterson-UTI, and leaving OPEC in charge of oil prices.
"There's never been such a focus on innovation of technologies across the energy industries," said S&P's Yergin.
Some 225 start-ups will participate, a 60% increase from a last year, many of which got a shot in the arm from Biden's Inflation Reduction Act, which provides tax credits and incentives for low-carbon and clean energy technology.
US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm and White House clean energy advisor John Podesta will lay out implementation of the Inflation Reduction Act, said S&P Global's Yergin.
"The amount of renewables that we're going to have to build over the next decade is enormous, and I don't think everybody has really digested the scope of that," said Andres Gluski, CEO of energy and utility giant AES Corp.
