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Dateline: Aberdeen. I'm at the , which jams the traffic around Aberdeen's conference centre every two years.

Don't under-estimate the significance of this event - bringing the industry together from around the world, and deepening the foundations of the city's reputation as Europe's energy capital.

Two themes from the first morning's conference deliberations stand out as over-shadowing the North Sea industry, or UKCS, as they prefer to call it here (UK Continental Shelf - the Treasury's 1970s device for avoiding any hint that oil riches this might be in Scottish waters).

One is the maturing of the oil fields, and how to incentivise the industry to keep drilling and extracting when the costs get ever higher.

There are other places to sink your drill bit around the world, with better prospects for a financial gusher.

So the pressure is on the Treasury - and energy minister Lord Hunt, who is here today - to give more tax breaks for mature wells.

The industry is segmented into specialist companies, some of which put all their effort into mature wells, while the majors exit and focus on what they do best on a big scale.

That process began well over 10 years ago, when Talisman was among those that took over wells from the majors.

Today, Talisman president and CEO John Manzoni was pointing the way to the next generation of small innovators.

But he raised a couple of problems.

It is hard for Talisman to sell on depleting oil fields when small companies are the ones having most trouble getting credit, and especially when they have to raise large amounts for the securities they need to cover de-commissioning liabilities.

It's a fair bet that rows and tensions over de-commissioning are going to grow.

The other complexity of depleting oil fields is that they require ever more energy to do the extracting.

And more energy means a bigger carbon cost.

With carbon costs rising further in future, there is an incentive to abandon those wells with hundreds of millions of barrels of untapped oil and gas because you can extract the same oil with a lower carbon footprint elsewhere.

But going where the oil is most cheaply produced doesn't do much for the British exchequer or for energy security.

That question of climate change leads on to the other factor over-shadowing the Aberdeen conference and exhibition: renewable energy.

Ramco set the tone yesterday.

The Aberdeen-based company that was once an oil and gas innovator announced yesterday it's innovating out of oil and gas altogether.

It will re-brand as SeaEnergy and focus only on offshore renewables.

However, you can sense a bristling from the oil and gas industry bosses when turbines loom on the conversational horizon.

They're not against renewables, they stress.

But the emphasis being placed on turbines and green power ignores the importance of the oil men (and a few women) keeping our economies and lifestyles fuelled and lubricated for the next few decades at least.

Don't forget and ignore us, is the plea - you're going to need us yet.

And be aware that the complexity of extracting oil and gas in depleting and more remote basins is going to become more of a burden and technological challenge, not less.

That exchange began early today between Alex Salmond and Scotland's foremost oilman, Sir Ian Wood.

Salmond was pointing to the vast opportunities of applying oilfield skills to renewable engineering challenges.

Sir Ian was pointing to the work still to be done on North Sea hydrocarbons.

Andrew Gould, president and chief executive of Shlumberger, followed up with the observation that the oil industry is not necessarily best placed to lead the renewables revolution.

John D Rockefeller did not create Standard Oil by buying up Boston's whaling industry, he pointed out - a strange parallel to choose, as he himself went on to observe that the whaling industry quickly died when Standard Oil came along with its new "energy solution".

Talking of solutions, of which the Bridge of Don currently has many, I have to go and venture through the vast, wind-battered marquees of this exhibition.

I spotted a stand earlier offering "innovative pigging solutions", but without the smell of hog roast.

Time I went back to find out more.