Unsurprisingly here at the first Oil & Money annual conference since the BP oil spill, the talk in the corridors and meeting rooms, not to mention the main stage, has been dominated by that tragedy.

In general, the tone has been one of a stoic determination on the part of executives to carry on as normal, although coupled with an acceptance that much of the fallout is as yet unknown.

But at one of today’s session, that stoicism boiled over into outright hostility towards the US government about its attempts to regulate the industry post-Macondo.