• CERAWEEK 2025 | March 10-14, 2025
  • CERAWEEK
  • March 10 - 14, 2025

Gretchen Watkins

Shell USA Inc.

President

As President of Shell USA Inc., Gretchen Watkins oversees the strategic integration of all Shell businesses in the United States and leads the US Country Coordination Team. Since being named to this post in 2018, she has become the company’s leading voice, with public and private leaders, across a wide range of energy-related policy and societal challenges. In addition to these responsibilities, Gretchen serves as Executive Vice President of Shell’s Global Shales business, overseeing the exploration, development, and production of Shell’s Upstream shale oil and gas portfolio. Before joining Shell in May 2018, Gretchen served as the Chief Executive Officer of Maersk Oil, following two years as Chief Operating Officer. Gretchen’s tenure at Maersk coincided with a low-price environment for oil, but under her leadership, the company delivered above-target operational and financial results, enabling a safe and successful enterprise sale of Maersk Oil to Total in 2017. Gretchen began her career nearly 30 years ago as a Facilities Engineer for Amoco. She then worked as a Trading Manager for Amoco and BP before commencing an international career that has included a variety of senior executive roles at BP, Marathon Oil, and Maersk Oil in North America, Europe, and Asia. Gretchen also currently serves as a non-executive director of the Mosaic Company, one of the world’s leading producers and marketers of concentrated phosphate. She graduated from The Pennsylvania State University with a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering and has had executive education at Cambridge and Stanford Universities.

Sessions With Gretchen Watkins

Tuesday, 10 March

  • 03:50pm - 04:35pm (CST) / -

    Plenary - Future for North American Shale?
    Upstream Oil & Gas

    Shale production is no longer new. North American shale producers have brought this enormous resource to the surface in quantities that have overwhelmed the market. Yet the sector has been struggling with multiple challenges, and sentiment has soured. What will be the legacy of shale? Will it be a small (and final) chapter in the long history of oil and gas? Or is this a disruption that signals the start of the next phase? How does shale stack up against conventional assets in terms of performance and profitability? Will it be advantaged or disadvantaged in a world of environmental, social, and governance concerns? Why has shale resource development been so slow to take root outside North America? Is that changing? Can companies make shale work financially? What needs to happen for it to deliver consistent and strong returns?