Executives from major U.S. oil companies held private meetings Monday on the sidelines of a conference in Houston to discuss energy issues with top OPEC officials, familiar with the matter, continuing a tradition that began nearly five years ago when the two sides were at odds. Competitors.

Both parties are enjoying strong global demand for oil and gas and have posted record profits over the past year. Their competition faded with the confirmation of the shale oil boom, which brought the United States to the top of the world’s oil producers and eroded OPEC’s market share.

OPEC viewed shale oil as an uncontrollable force that reduced its revenues by bringing huge new oil supplies to market. Relations improved after shale companies agreed to investor demands for higher capital returns and lower costs for capacity expansion.

In more recent years, the gala dinner was held during the CERA Week Energy Conference in the capital of the US oil industry.

This year’s dinner will be the first for OPEC Secretary General Haitham Al-Qais. He took office in August.

Chesapeake Energy CEO Nick Del Oso, Pioneer Natural Resources CEO Scott Sheffield and Hess Corporation CEO John Hess were among the top U.S. company executives seen at the dinner by Reuters reporters.

This year’s private dinner comes at a turbulent time for global markets, as the war in Ukraine has disrupted global oil and gas flows.

U.S. oil production is expected to rise to less than 600,000 barrels per day in 2023, a much lower rate than the roughly two million barrels per day in 2018.

Meanwhile, OPEC members pledged to cut production by two million barrels a day, setting a floor for prices.

Fewer OPEC officials are attending the annual Sera Week conference this year, with ministers from key countries including Saudi Arabia and Iraq absent.