The palace, the protests and the red carpet: How OPEC’s seminar played out

For centuries, Vienna’s romantic Hofburg palace served as a winter residence of the imperial Habsburg dynasty — this week, though, it welcomed Saudi royalty, energy ministers, top CEOs and a slew of analysts traders and more.

Here are some highlights:

Since 1965, Vienna has housed the headquarters of the OPEC Secretariat — the administrative backbone of the 12-member OPEC alliance of oil producers.

The Secretariat is led by a secretary-general — currently, former Kuwaiti official Haitham al-Ghais, who took office for his first three-year term in 2022 and has since been reappointed for a second stint starting Aug. 1, 2025.

Before the Covid-19 pandemic, the OPEC Secretariat was the humble backdrop of (often) day-long, high-stakes and heated discussions over crude output levels between OPEC producers and their allies, at least twice a year.

The Secretariat’s home is a cavernous building, where journalists are typically relegated to a basement media room. Sometimes, they’re allowed to maraud down cordoned-off areas, hunting for comment as oil ministers of OPEC countries and their allies — collectively known as OPEC+ — arrive.

Despite that, even the most nostalgic OPEC journalists will admit that the group’s seminar has had a major venue upgrade.

The Hofburg palace opened its gates to delegates and media over July 9-10 for a series of sessions focusing on the state of play in the oil market, hydrocarbon investment and the green energy transition. The conference is attended by invitation and accreditation.

For the OPEC seminar, the Hofburg palace laid out an interminable red carpet and armed one of its ballrooms-turned-conference halls with larger-than-life high-tech screens playing OPEC’s cinematic account of the history of oil.

“I’m sure with this event, there are quite a few people who would say, ‘Damn it, why I wasn’t there?'” Saudi Prince and Energy Minister Abdulaziz bin Salman, the de facto leader of the OPEC alliance, said during special remarks as the conference opened on Wednesday.

Acknowledging the Austrian government’s willingness to “do its utmost to enable this organization to survive and work and attend to its function, unhindered by … legal concerns and things like that,” he stressed: “We are here because your country is beautiful, the city is historic, and more important, the people are welcoming.”

It turned out, the idyllic charm of Hofburg’s sprawling alleyways is no match for a megaphone.

By 4:45 p.m. local time on Wednesday, a group of around 30 people, by CNBC’s count, had gathered at a respectful distance across the road from the palace to protest the OPEC seminar.

A protester briefly leading the chants, who did not want to be identified, said the demonstration was in support of the embattled Gaza enclave, which has been targeted by a retaliatory Israeli military campaign since the Hamas terrorist attacks of October 2023. She pointed CNBC to a series of posts on the stop_opec Instagram account.

“Sitting atop plentiful oil resources, Arab regimes yield the power enough to halt Israeli expansion and challenge the West. Yet they choose to fuel U.S. arm sales, and enrich them with real estate, simultaneously fortifying Europe’s borders,” said one social media post.

On the ground, chanting protesters called for an oil embargo and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz – echoing a threat made by Tehran during its 12-day war with Israel last month.

Many Arab states — including Hamas supporter Iran – have expressed solidarity with the Palestinian cause. CNBC has reached out to the OPEC Secretariat for comment over the protests.

The who’s-who of OPEC Seminar speakers spanned ministers of OPEC countries, their allies, key consumers such as India and Turkey, as well as the CEOs of the biggest names in the industry, including the heads of BP, TotalEnergies, Shell and Saudi Aramco.

CNBC tried to intercept several of these delegations.

Ministers from heavyweight producers Russia and Iran — who would likely have been swarmed by journalists amid pressures from European and U.S. sanctions — were notably absent.

Iranian Oil Minister Mohsen Paknejad nevertheless delivered opening remarks via videoconference on Wednesday, in a speech which included some rare political comments. He stressed the risks that armed escalations pose to crude markets, mere weeks after his country, OPEC’s third-largest producer, was locked in a 12-day war with Israel.

“This vital and growing industry needs peace to serve its mission of promoting prosperity at national, regional and global levels; and to promote cooperation and development in a fast changing and ever-complicating world,” he said, according to a speech readout.

Going into the conference, members of the press can’t be begrudged their enthusiasm: OPEC+ — as well as its eight-nation subset who have been carrying out voluntary cuts in crude production — have been increasingly meeting over private videoconference, limiting opportunities for press briefings.

At the OPEC seminar, the action doesn’t start at the red carpet. Often tipped off on where delegations are staying, journalists frequently stake out hotels, hoping for unguarded comments as ministers make their way to the conference. CNBC’s Emma Graham also likened the event to a wedding — no one is getting married, but journalists can once again have a good catch up with their friends who report on the oil market.

Otherwise, most OPEC reporting is now done through sourced scoops and probing delegates for market views and indicators ahead of — and during — policy meetings. The next one is due on Aug. 3, between the eight members who have been progressively (and increasingly briskly) unwinding a voluntary 2.2 million-barrels-per-day production cut.