Abu Dhabi’s annual energy exhibition ADIPEC is taking place with conversations focused on opportunities including oil above $100 a barrel, a new unconventional oil play being unlocked in the UAE, fusion, AI, and infrastructure upgrades, and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman spoke at the opening ceremony. The UAE’s decision to leave OPEC has changed the gathering’s makeup; Saudi Aramco doesn’t even have a booth, and while the biggest Saudi, Kuwaiti, Omani, and Qatari companies stayed away, participants from more than 170 countries are present. The absence of top executives from ExxonMobil and Chevron, as well as US government representation, has been noticed, with Amos Hochstein, a former senior energy and national security adviser to President Joe Biden, saying of US officials, “I think they should be here,” adding, “The United States and UAE are close allies, you have to be here when it counts.” Hochstein said the UAE is a “critical partner for the US when it comes to AI buildout,” and Sultan Al Jaber, UAE minister of industry and advanced technology and managing director and group chief executive of ADNOC, had Altman as the guest of honor. ADNOC agreed to become the first energy company to deploy OpenAI Frontier, part of a partnership with OpenAI and G42 to improve operations, strengthen resilience, and increase productivity.