One of the geopolitical factors the former deputy prime minister exhorts the conference to watch out for is the attitude of Canada’s closest international neighbor. “We’re getting mixed messages from the United States,” she says. The Americans say they don’t want to be enablers of poor environmental practices. But they’re also always talking about reducing their reliance on Middle East oil. An important issue, obviously, because no one at the conference wants demand for oil to drop. What would energy service companies do then?

The solution, McLellan suggests, is temperance and diplomacy, not heavy-handedness. “You don’t go to the world’s only superpower and tell them you need our oil whether you like it or not,” she explains later in a spacious hotel room, reserved for a Q&A session with five media representatives who may be the only oil agnostics in the crowd.

“Instead, you go to the U.S. and remind them that we are stable and friendly. We understand your political pressures.”

At the same press conference, Gossen agrees. “We need a bit of an image makeover,” the energy council chief says. He also says of the oil industry, “We shouldn’t be shy about our successes, our work with NGOs (non-government organizations, like charities or the more moderate environmental societies), because the public pays more attention to that than when companies say the same thing. We have to be comfortable with transparency.”

Listening to them speak and volley compliments back and forth, alternating between fervency and subtlety, you get the sense that every problem with the industry, every potential setback, from the carbon dioxide emissions cap and trade movement to Greenpeace, will work out nicely. It’s becoming more and more like being in a church. They’re talking about their power to convert the skeptics, and the power is real.

When McLellan talks about the social license to operate, especially in the unconventional oil sector where Alberta is a dominant force, she exhibits a power of persuasion that seems to flow directly from pure optimism.

It’s that optimism that follows each conference participant into the breakout sessions, as if there were no end to the boom in sight. They learn about environmental effects of the oilsands – negligible compared to the benefits, it is suggested – and maintaining happy employees, which is portrayed as doable. All look forward to the Indy – and their future.

That’s what the Services Summit is: a refuge against the winds of doubt, presided over by an officially admired and respected clergy reading from an economic and political sacrament that shines an optimistic light on the province.

Gossen, who is Nexen’s vice president for Safety, Environment and Social Responsibility, considers himself a roving ambassador for the global industry in his role as president of WPC.

He believes the role offers an opportunity to work to improve the oil industry’s reputation and to encourage dialogue between the industry and essential partners such as governments, non-governmental organizations and international organizations.

“As an industry, we have to find ways of producing oil in an economically viable, environmentally acceptable and socially responsible way,” says Gossen. “The big issue is around our reputation and credibility. The WPC can’t solve the world’s problems, but it can facilitate and catalyze dialogue between the industry and its various stakeholders.”

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