Big Oil struggles with image problem over Gulf spill and high gas prices

As the global offshore oil and gas industry meets in Houston this week, leaders say they are aware the reputation of their business is still bruised after the BP Gulf of Mexico oil spill and that motorists and politicians are fuming over $4 gasoline prices. But they cautioned Washington against overreaching with new regulation and taxes, stressing the enormity of the challenge ahead in meeting the world's surging energy needs.

"We cannot afford to have emotions control business and policy decisions," Zuhair Hussain, vice president of Saudi Aramco's drilling and workover unit, said during a panel discussion Tuesday at the 2011 Offshore Technology Conference.