Barack Obama

American Petroleum Institute President Jack Gerard invited an unlikely guest to an upcoming event hosted by the trade group: Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.), one of the most vocal critics of the oil industry in Congress.

Gerard and Markey have been sparring in recent weeks over API’s claim that the oil industry can create more than 1 million jobs in the coming years if policymakers opened wide new areas to drilling, among other policies.

Markey, the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, has blasted Gerard’s claim (which can be found in API-commissioned studies), arguing that the powerful industry group has cooked its numbers.

But Gerard hit back Wednesday, accusing Markey of misunderstanding “important facts” about the oil-and-gas industry in a letter to the lawmaker.

In an unexpected twist, Gerard then invited Markey to sit at the head table at API’s upcoming State of American Energy lunch in Washington.