Carroll takes the reins

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MONDAY 8 JUNE 2015
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WORLD GAS
CONFERENCE
PARIS 2015
Carroll
takes the
reins
New International Gas Union
president David Carroll speaks
out on making the IGU “a more
concise and impactful
advocate” for gas, and reflects
on the divergent views on
carbon pricing among
Pages 2&3
members.
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New IGU president David Carroll
Photo: WGC
Top level debate sets
the tone in Paris Page 4
EPA study plays down
fracking impact
Page 7
Winning over public
for gas developmentPage 6
2 Show Daily
Monday 8 June 2015
IGU
Carroll looking for harmony
The International Gas Union aims to be more vocal under new
president David Carroll, but can the mild-mannered chemical
engineer convince strong-willed European and American gas giants
to sing to the same tune?
ERIK MEANS
Paris
THE close of the World Gas Conference (WGC) on Friday marked the
end of Frenchman Jerome Ferrier’s three-year term as International Gas Union president, and
the beginning of the presidential
tenure of David Carroll, a 58-yearold American who has been chief
executive of the Gas Technology
Institute near Chicago since
2006.
Carroll congratulated Ferrier for
his achievements, noting that IGU
membership has grown, new
partnerships have been established, “and the voice of gas is being heard more clearly and more
loudly in the global energy debate”.
Carroll told Upstream he hopes
that, during his time in office,
“the messages coming from this
organisation will be sharper, will
be more timely and more relevant,
and connected with key strategic
events”, listing the COP21 climate
summit in Paris this December as
an example.
“The next transitional shift for
us is becoming a more concise and
impactful advocate (for gas). Not
just a mouthpiece, but rather a
developer of the practices, the policies, the scientific information on
which enlightened policy is going
to be developed in the future.”
He has until the close of the
next WGC — to be held in Washington DC in June 2018 — to create
a lasting legacy at the IGU and
among its 91 member countries.
However, his chances of orchestrating full unity during his
three-year tenure appear slim, as
WGC in Paris showed that the
differences between the US and
Europe run deeper than just varying voltage.
On the one hand, the chief executives of six European energy
giants delivered a harmonious
message early last week in favour
of a new carbon pricing system —
effectively declaring war on the
coal industry in a bid to promote
a higher share for natural gas in
the global energy mix.
On the other hand, however,
the bosses of the biggest US energy giants — Rex Tillerson of
ExxonMobil and John Watson of
Chevron — declined to sing along.
They voiced opposition to
carbon pricing and tried instead
to drum up support for access to
European shale plays, while
sounding the horn for the fracking techniques that have successfully turned the US gas industry
on its head in recent years.
Carroll called the carbon pricing initiative “a complex question
and issue”, adding that “it’s
important to recognise that regions are different — they’re dif-
Taking the reins:
new IGU president
David Carroll
Photo: WGC
ferent in the relative availability
of various types of energy and the
relative costs”.
He went on to acknowledge that
so far there is no “IGU-wide” policy
on the carbon pricing issue, and
that “we will need to see what
areas of common ground exist”
between the two camps.
“Clearly, carbon pricing is one
way to provide incentive to decarbonise the energy mix,” he said,
but added quickly: “There are other ways.”
Carroll mentioned specifically
“tightening regulatory standards”,
as seen already in the US through
the introduction of stricter limits
on emissions from power plants.
“Fortunately in the US, we have
the ability — with the abundance
of shale gas and its relatively low
economics — to virtually painlessly make that conversion, thus
reducing our greenhouse gas
emissions without penalizing
ourselves economically.”
Carroll added that “one has to
clearly allow for regional adaptation and implementation” as regards carbon pricing.
He also chose to look beyond the
potential immediate effects of a
new carbon pricing policy, and pondered what might happen next.
“The arguments for and against
things like carbon capture for coal
are very likely to eventually apply
to natural gas. So we need, as an
industry, to be prepared for that
real possibility,” he remarked.
“That said, we came out with a
press release earlier this week
stating that the number one thing
you could do right now to begin to
address climate change more dramatically, is to increase the
amount of natural gas in the power generation portfolio.”
He said that would be the obvious “immediate step” to reduce
carbon dioxide emissions, whereas “down the road… we need to
continue to not just tweak the system but improve the way gas is
produced and delivered and used”.
The official WGC 2015 show daily is published by Upstream, an NHST Media Group company, Christian Krohgs gate 16, PO Box 1182, Sentrum, N-0107 Oslo. This edition was published on 8 June 2015.
© All articles appearing in the Upstream WGC 2015 show daily are protected by copyright. Any unauthorised reproduction is strictly prohibited. Editor-in-chief: Erik Means
Monday 8 June 2015
Show Daily 3
IGU
Carroll braces for uphill
battle to win over public
New IGU president ready to fight war of information
to improve image of industry as new EPA report
cites safety of hydraulic fracturing
ERIK MEANS
Paris
BETTER communication with the
world at large is one of the goals
set by new International Gas Union president David Carroll as he
begins his three-year term.
He acknowledges that it is an
uphill battle to fight a war of information against PR-savvy groups
opposed to the gas industry.
“There is a lot of progress being
made (by the industry), but we’re
not capturing that information
and we’re not communicating it,”
Carroll told Upstream.
However, he added that he
believes that “eventually common
sense wins out and economics
wins out… and frankly, down the
road, it doesn’t do us any good to
advocate for a particular fuel or
energy source if it doesn’t make
sense”.
He describes himself as “a glass
half-full person” and expresses
confidence that the industry will
“eventually get there”.
“How do we win this public
confidence battle, or maybe at
least draw it back to even? It’s not
just the gas industry talking to
itself… it’s about engaging the
broader community out there —
policy-makers and advocates and
folks that perhaps are a little more
sceptical.
“And it involves third party investigation and validation of some
of the real facts behind the industry,” he said.
He pointed to a new report from
the US Environmental Protection
Agency on the results of extensive
studies of the effects of hydraulic
fracturing.
“Bottom line,” Carroll said,
“they’ve come up with the result
that we’ve sort of known as an industry all along: it’s safe.”
With fracking operations, he
said, “you need to follow the proper procedures, you need to be
properly diligent about well
construction and surface water
Top table: outgoing IGU president Jerome Ferrier (left) secretary general Paal Rasmussen
(centre) and new president David Carroll (right)
Photo: KAIA MEANS
management, and good recycling
techniques and so forth. But at the
end of the day, it’s a safe and reliable practice to bring energy to
market”.
Turning to another hot potato
for the industry — gas flaring —
Carroll stated clearly that flaring
should indeed be reduced, “both
from an environmental perspective and also for the sheer econom-
ic value of recovering that
gas”.
“There are a number of initiatives
under way around the world to
reduce the amount of flaring, to
capture the gas, including up in
North America in the Bakken shale.
“The reality there is that (oil)
production got ahead of the infrastructure investments necessary
to collect and process the gas.”
He said there are some “tight and
precise regulations around” limiting how much gas can be flared
and demanding that reductions
are made within set dates.
“This will dramatically reduce
the amount of flaring, largely
through infrastructure buildout so that we’re able to
capture and use the gas productively.”
Ferrier
hands over
the batton
JEROME Ferrier closed the 26th
World Gas Conference in Paris
on Friday by handing the
presidency of the International
Gas Union, a post he has held for
the past three years, to David
Carroll.
Ferrier said it had been “a
privilege” to serve as IGU
president these past three
years.
“It is fitting that we hand over
the presidency to our friends in
the United States. The natural
gas revolution in North America
has transformed the profile of
our sector,” he said.
Carroll will lead the IGU up to
and including the next WGC, to
be held in Washington DC in
June 2018.
“I would like to pay tribute to
the sterling work, leadership
and collaboration of our French
colleagues during their
presidency,” Carroll said.
“We look forward to building
on their achievements to ensure
that the global natural gas
industry realises its full
potential as an integral part of
the world’s energy future,” he
added.
Ferrier noted that WGC in
Paris has been a highly
successful event, with 3500
delegates from nearly 100
countries, in spite of the
difficult fundamentals facing
the industry at present.
IGU secretary general Paal
Rasmussen pointed out that the
organisation puts high
emphasis on continuity, even as
a new president takes over.
Carroll has served as IGU vice
president these past three
years. During his tenure as
president, he will still benefit
from Ferrier’s experience as the
Frenchman will continue to
serve in the IGU management as
immediate past-president.
The vice presidency of the IGU
now goes to South Korea, which
will assume the presidency
after Carroll steps aside in 2018.
The natural gas
revolution in
North America
has transformed
the profile of our
sector.
Outgoing IGU
president
Jerome Ferrier
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4 Show Daily
Monday 8 June 2015
WGC ROUND-UP
Top level debate sets the tone
WGC makes
lasting
impression as
gas industry
leaders converge
on Paris to
discuss key
issues
ERIK MEANS
Paris
THE oil and gas industry may still
be licking its wounds after the
treacherously steep drop in commodity prices over the past year,
but that only seemed to give more
urgency to the discussions and
debates during an intense but upbeat week at the World Gas Conference (WGC) in Paris.
The turnout at WGC, held only
every three years, showed that it
remains a vital event on the calendar of industry executives, as
many of the biggest names in the
energy business made their way
to the Paris Expo during the week.
One of the strongest lasting impressions from WGC emanated
from the unity shown by the chief
executives of Europe’s largest energy giants.
The heads of six major European
operators — BP, BG Group, Eni,
Shell, Statoil and Total — issued a
pair of letters addressed to Christiana Figueres, executive secretary
of the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change
(UNFCC), and Manuel Pulgar-Vidal,
president of the upcoming COP21
climate summit in Paris.
The first letter urged the adoption
of a global carbon policy and pricing
system, while the second touted a
major increase in the use of natural
gas for power generation, in replacement of coal. These measures,
they said, are needed to address the
threat of climate change.
The letters — released just as
WGC delegates were about to gather at the Grand Palais for a spectacular gala opening — seemed to
set the tone for the entire week at
the conference.
And the message was driven
home even more clearly during the
first two days of WGC, as four of the
six chief executives in question
gave keynote addresses and explained their positions to delegates.
BP chief executive Bob Dudley
said in his WGC keynote that the
switch from coal to gas, when
paired with energy efficiency,
could lead to real improvement in
emission levels.
“There are two main ways to do
it. The first is to use energy more
efficiently, and the second is to
use lower carbon energy in place
of higher carbon energy. Put simply, saving and switching. And
critically, switching does not only
mean switching from fossil fuels
to non-fossil fuels, but from coal
to gas,” Dudley said.
“If we were to switch just 1% of
total power generation from coalfired power plants to gas-fired
ones, that would cut emissions as
much as increasing renewable en-
At the event: IGU president Jerome Ferrier (centre) tours WGC 2015 after the opening ceremony
Photos: KAIA MEANS/WGC
Maria van der Hoeven
Ben van Beurden
Peter Coleman
Bob Dudley
Patrick Pouyanne
Khalid Al-Thani
Rex Tillerson
Gerard Mestrallet
efficient mechanism. We believe
it is important that [European]
countries have a general framework and a willingness to establish pricing.”
Statoil chief execitive Eldar
Saetre said in his WGC keynote
that “the world is a better place,
it’s a cleaner place, and also a cooler place if we can produce more
gas and replace the growing demand for coal”.
In contrast, Rex Tillerson of US
supermajor ExxonMobil and John
Watson of compatriot giant Chevron both turned a cold shoulder to
carbon pricing, preferring instead
to challenge Europe to embrace
fracking techniques that have
successfully opened the door to
huge shale gas reserves in the US.
However, other major gas players stepped up to the podium at
WGC and added their support to
the carbon pricing effort and their
opposition to coal.
Engie chief executive Gerard
Mestrallet said: “Gas is an energy
of the future and is a strongpoint
in the decarbonisation of our
economies.”
Woodside boss Peter Coleman
pulled no punches in his speech:
“We in the gas sector must do
more to highlight the benefits of
gas over the products of our competitors. Give me a break, who
coined ‘clean coal’ and why did we
let that happen?”
Qatargas chief executive Sheikh
Khalid bin Khalifa Al-Thani pointed out that gas could provide
secure backup for renewable energy and thereby boost the reliability of power systems that are
increasingly driven by alternative
energy.
“Renewables alone cannot meet
world demand for sustainable
clean energy. No energy portfolio
can be considered reliable without
natural gas,” he said. “Natural gas
is a key pillar for a more a sustainable energy future.”
Eldar Saetre
John Watson
ergy by 11%.” Shell chief executive
Ben van Beurden used his keynote
in Paris to “urge governments and
the UN — at COP21 and beyond —
to introduce well-implemented
carbon pricing systems where
they do not yet exist at the national or regional levels”.
Total chief executive Patrick
Pouyanne warned at WGC that any
framework provided by governments would need to take into account differences between established and emerging economies,
adding that it was not realistic to
expect a single global carbon price
to emerge.
“This would be utopia but developing countries are different,”
Pouyanne said. “We do want an
Monday 8 June 2015
Show Daily 5
LNG DEVELOPMENTS
Solving the remote challenge
Projects in Papua New Guinea and
British Columbia show that creativity
and local knowledge hold the key
Site visit:
executives at
an isolated
PNG LNG site
NOAH BRENNER
Paris
DEVELOPING liquefied natural gas
projects in remote areas requires
significant technical expertise
but the most cutting-edge technological solution is not always the
right one.
Project developers in British
Columbia and Papua New Guinea
told the World Gas Conference in
Paris said the creative application
of existing technology can sometimes save time and costs.
At the PNG LNG project in Papua
New Guinea, project engineers
had to figure out the best place to
site the liquefaction facility and
begin early engineering analysis
without the benefit of modern
geophysical maps, ExxonMobil’s
Robert Albrecht said.
The engineers hired a local boat
owner and equipped the vessel
with single-beam sonar to survey
the shallow, potentially sensitive
coast.
“The mariner is a local man who
knows the territory better than
the people who live there,” Albrecht said. “I would argue that this
is possibly the safest approach in
a remote area — to use local resources.”
The information was combined
with existing data gleaned from
the PNG Geological Survey archives to quickly create a basic
map that could be used for early
analysis.
“We started our engineering
with a cartoon based almost entirely on indirect data,” he said.
“Looking back, I suppose it’s a bit
embarrassing but you could say
we could have done the engineering on this, and the cost estimate
on this, and not been horribly
wrong.”
Albrecht admitted that the
operation was not what many
people think of when they think
of ExxonMobil, but said the fact
that the company has cuttingedge technology does not mean it
is always the best approach.
“ExxonMobil is a results
company,” he said, “and if it’s
high technology we will use high
technology, and if it’s the right
technology we’ll use the right
technology.”
In some cases, an entirely new
model is needed to enable a project
to compete in an already crowded
marketplace.
Global engineering firm Linde
designed the Woodfibre project,
which has a nameplate capacity of
2.1 million tonnes per annum, for
an area in British Columbia, Canada that has no road access.
The project represents a new
“mid-scale” LNG project model
that could help unlock natural gas
discoveries that may not fit into
existing models for either a very
large export project or a microscale project for local use, Linde
lead process engineer Matthias
Schmidt said.
Linde’s midscale design uses
proven technology and a completely modularised construction
concept. “Using all this, you significantly reduce the overall
project risk by having a shorter
time to the market and reducing
the complexity of financing,”
Schmidt said. “Taking all this together, this enables new players to
enter the LNG export market.”
Photo:
EXXONMOBIL
6 Show Daily
Monday 8 June 2015
UNCONVENTIONAL NATURAL GAS
Acceptance remains an issue
Public approval for unconventional
natural gas production is the major
hurdle to tapping reserves worldwide
NOAH BRENNER
Paris
UNCONVENTIONAL natural gas
production continues to struggle
for acceptance even in countries
where the government has embraced it, and gaining a licence to
operate from the public at large
remains perhaps the biggest key
to such development.
In France, where the government has banned hydraulic fracturing, trying to regain such public confidence is an obvious
prerequisite for beginning any
sort of unconventional exploration.
Jean-Louis Schilansky, president of French shale gas advocacy
group CHNC, told the World Gas
Conference in Paris that his group
is trying to change the debate
simply by presenting factual information to the public.
“The quantity of misinformation that has been going on is just
astounding, absolutely astounding,” he said. “We wanted to give
some facts to the French public,
the media, officials and that’s the
mission of this centre, which we
have created.”
In Australia and Argentina, two
countries where unconventional
natural gas and oil development,
respectively, have begun to make
significant production contributions, industry has made peace
with public concerns about impacts to the environment and to
human health. Gaining that acceptance was a “prerequisite” for
the ongoing boom in coalseam gas
production and early exploration
of shale gas formations, said Grant
King, chief executive of Origin Energy.
In Neuquen province in Argentina, almost 70% of the population
says they agree with development
of the potentially massive Vaca
Muerta shale tight oil play, according to a recent survey, said
Ernesto Lopez Anadon, head of the
trade group IAPG.
But to gain such acceptance, the
IAPG had to make an effort to educate people about the true impacts
and benefits of development.
In China, unconventional development has the unwavering
support of a government keen to
transition its energy use away
from coal and toward cleanerburning fuels such as natural
gas.
However, that does not mean
that operators can run roughshod
over the countryside.
Many of the most promising areas for the development in the
southern portion of the country
have the twin challenges of being
both environmentally sensitive
and densely populated, said
Yuzhang Liu, a lead shale gas researcher with state-controlled
China National Petroleum Corpo-
Prerequisite:Origin Energy chief executive Grant King
ration. “Environmental protection
is very important” in China’s push
to realise its shale gas production
goals, he added.
Even in the US, where shale gas
and tight oil production has revolutionised the industry, concerns
remain that operators could lose
access to resources due to public
backlash against things like
fracking and the intensity of drilling.
“Shale development poses legitimate important environmental risks that need to be addressed
in order to maintain public support and the industry’s social licence to operate,” said Jason Bordoff, who advised the Obama
administration for four years on
Photo: WGC
energy issues. “Ultimately, safe
and responsible development is in
everyone’s interest, including industry because maintaining public support for shale production in
the US is going to require not only
that we develop the resource safely, but that we develop public
trust and confidence that, in fact,
we can develop it safely.”,
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Monday 8 June 2015
Show Daily 7
SHALE
Frac study plays down impact
Report from the US Environmental
Protection Agency finds fracturing
has ‘not had widespread effects’
CAROLINE EVANS
Houston
A NEW draft study from the US
Environmental Protection Agency
has found that hydraulic fracturing has not had widespread or
systematic impacts on water resources.
However, it did find that the controversial method has affected
water in isolated cases.
“Of the potential mechanisms
identified in this report, we found
specific instances where one or
more of these mechanisms led to
impacts on water resources, including contamination of drinking
water wells,” according to the report’s executive summary, released late last week.
“The cases occurred during both
routine activities and accidents
and have resulted in impacts to
surface or ground water.”
However, the amount of cases
where drinking water was found to
be contaminated was relatively
small compared to the number of
fracked wells.
“This could reflect a rarity of effects on drinking water resources,
or maybe an underestimate as a
result of several factors,” according
to the study.
The research focused on water
used for hydraulic fracturing from
water acquisition, chemical mixing at the wellpad site, well injection of fracking fluids, the collection of hydraulic fracturing
wastewater, and wastewater treatment and disposal.
Environmental and industry
groups were both quick to seize on
the information as a win for each
of their respective campaigns.
“After more than five years and
millions of dollars, the evidence
gathered by EPA confirms what the
agency has already acknowledged
and what the oil and gas industry
has known,” American Petroleum
Institute upstream director Erik
Milito said.
“Hydraulic fracturing is being
done safely under the strong environmental stewardship of state
regulators and industry best practices.”
However, environmental groups
countered that the study did in fact
prove that fracking can cause
water pollution.
“Today EPA confirmed what com-
Regulators: API upstream
director Erik Milito
Photo: API
munities living with fracking have
known for years — fracking pollutes
drinking water,” said Earthworks
policy director Lauren Pagel.
“Now the Obama administration, Congress, and state governments must act on that information to protect our drinking water
and stop perpetuating the oil and
gas industry’s myth that fracking
is safe.”
The study, carried out at the request of the US Congress, is believed to be the most thorough
research to date on fracking’s effect on water resources.
Controversy: Hydraulic trucks prepare for a fracturing job in
Marion, Kansas
Photo: LUKE JOHNSON
8 Show Daily
Monday 8 June 2015
BRAZIL
Reduction: the P-52 platform in the Campos basin
Photo: REUTERS/SCANPIX
Petrobras hails flaring cutback
Offshore platforms’ gas utilisation rate reaches 96% after campaign
to reduce flaring focuses on commissioning phase
FABIO PALMIGIANI
Paris
BRAZILIAN oil giant Petrobras
has improved the utilisation rate
of natural gas on board its offshore
production platforms in the Campos and Santos basins, mainly due
to a considerable reduction in flaring.
In 2010, Petrobras launched the
gas usage optimisation programme (POAG) in an effort to
become more efficient in making
use of natural gas in a sustainable way.
“Before 2010, we were getting
less efficient year after year. To address the issue, a multi-disciplinary group was formed to study
the causes of this and run a complete diagnosis,” Petrobras natural
gas strategic management co-ordinator Vitor de Souza Lima told
an audience at the World Gas Con-
ference in Paris. “We proposed a
plan of action to reduce gas flaring
on board offshore platforms, and
that is how POAG was born.”
Lima explained that studies
showed many gas flaring problems were happening during the
commissioning phase of new production systems that Petrobras
was putting on stream at that
time, as well as from some old
units, mainly related to their obsolete gas facilities.
“We decided to focus on new
production platform requirements
to reduce gas flaring during the
commissioning phase, and on operational improvement to reduce
gas flaring in platforms already in
operation,” Lima added.
After five and a half years,
Petrobras was able to cut gas flar-
New FPSO trio expected for anticipated surge at Lula field
NATURAL gas output at Petrobras’ giant
Lula pre-salt field off Brazil continues to rise
and reached 14 million cubic metres per day
in April.
Natural gas production at Lula increased
6.9% in April from 13.1 MMcmd in March,
according to the latest monthly bulletin
published last week by the Brazilian
National Petroleum Agency.
Gas output at Lula is now almost twice as
large as the second-largest field there, as the
Mexilhao field in the Santos basin produced
7.3 MMcmd in April.
Lula is currently producing via 13 wells
from a total of three floating production,
storage and offloading vessels. The Cidade
de Angra dos Reis and Cidade de Paraty
FPSOs are at plateau with five wells each,
while the Cidade de Mangaratiba FPSO is
still ramping up, indicating output at Lula
is expected to reach new highs later this
year.
The three top natural gas producers in
Lula are all linked to the Cidade de
Mangaratiba floater, which entered
operations for Petrobras in November 2014.
Wells 7LL27RJS, 9LL2RJS and 4BRSA711RJS
produced 1.76 MMcmd, 1.66 MMcmd and 1.61
MMcmd, respectively, in April.
Petrobras expects to link another three
producing wells to the Cidade de
Mangaratiba FPSO by early 2016. That unit
has capacity to handle 6 MMcmd, but was
already producing slightly above 5 MMcmd
with just three wells.
Three additional FPSOs are also expected
to produce from Lula in the next 12 months.
The Cidade de Itaguai floater is meant to
enter operations in the fourth quarter.
The Cidade de Marica and Cidade de
Saquarema twin FPSOs are eyed to produce
from the Lula Alto and Lula Central areas
during the first half of 2016.
Combined, the three new FPSOs will add
additional capacity of 20 MMcmd at Lula.
ing from 9.3 million cubic metres
per day in 2009 to 3.6 MMcmd in
the first four months of this year,
even though natural gas output
jumped from 57 MMcmd to 90
MMcmd in the period.
The associated gas utilisation
rate at Petrobras’ offshore platforms went from 79% in 2009 to
94% in the January-April 2015 period. Including non-associated
gas, the percentage increased
from 84% to 96%.
Lima said: “We set a record with
a gas utilisation rate of 96.5% in
February. Since 2010, more than 65
gas flaring reduction projects
were implemented.”
The executive said that, before
POAG, half of Petrobras’ greenhouse gas emission activities
came from gas flaring.
“This number has now fallen to
a sixth of the total and, by the
end of 2015, it is estimated that
nearly 23 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions will have
been avoided due to actions implemented by the programme,”
he said.
Monday 8 June 2015
Show Daily 9
EUROPE
Slovakian call for Eastring role
Prime Minister
makes proposal
to Russians to
link pipeline
project with
TurkStream
VLADIMIR AFANASIEV
Paris
ON HIS visit to Moscow last week,
Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert
Fico proposed to Russian authorities that they should consider
linking the Gazprom-led TurkStream subsea gas pipeline with
the Eastring pipeline project.
Eastring, promoted by Slovakian gas pipeline operator
Eustream, calls for the construction of a gas pipeline from the
east of the country, via Hungary,
Romania and Bulgaria to Turkey.
If linked to TurkStream in Turkey, Eastring could become an
alternative supply route to Europe
for Turkstream, which is due to
terminate in Greece under the
original development plan. Construction of TurkStream is due to
begin later this month,
However, debt-burdened Greece
has reportedly asked for financial
assistance from Russia, and also
asked Gazprom to reduce the price
of gas supplied to the country as
its pre-conditions for joining
TurkStream.
The construction of Eastring
will be managed by a consortium
of private companies that will be
able to raise the required financing on their own, according to
Eustream.
The proposed pipeline has an
initial annual throughput capacity of 20 billion cubic metres of
gas, with the possibility of doubling it following the completion
of the second phase of the project.
Eustream general director Rastislav Nukovic told Upstream that,
in his opinion, at least “one or two
pipeline legs of TurkStream will
be built”.
“The required pipe and pipelaying vessels (for these jobs) are
already there”, he said.
The first two pipeline legs of
TurkStream could deliver about 32
billion cubic metres of gas to
Turkey. However, many industry
observers expect Gazprom to
eventually drop TurkStream, in
similar fashion to its abandonment of the South Stream project
Diplomacy: Russian President Vladimir Putin (left) meets Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico in Moscow
Photo: REUTERS/SCANPIX
last December. Russia has yet to
sign a supporting intergovernmental agreement with Turkey on
TurkStream and obtain agreements from its European partners
to start buying Russian gas in
Greece, rather than on the border
between Ukraine and Slovakia as
is the currently practice, sources
point out.
Eastring, in addition to providing an alternative export route to
Europe for TurkStream, is primarily aimed at increasing the security of gas supply to the Balkan
region, Nukovic said.
In the Balkans, countries such
as Romania and Bulgaria can receive gas from only one source —
the Transbalkan pipeline. This old
pipeline runs from Russia via
Ukraine into Romania and Bul-
EASTRING
KIEV
UKRAINE
SLOVAKIA
BRATISLAVA
BUDAPEST
HUNGARY
ROMANIA
BUCHAREST
KEY
BLACK SEA
PLANNED SK-HU-RO PIPELINE ROUTING
EXISTING GAS PIPELINES (UA)
PLANNED PIPELINE ROUTING OPTION A
PLANNED PIPELINE ROUTING OPTION B
SOURCE: EASTRING ILLUSTRATION: WWW.PIXELSHOP.GRAPHICS
BULGARIA
SOFIA
garia, before entering Turkey.
Nukovic said Eastring is projected
to work in both directions, taking
potential excess gas supply from
Turkey, or moving gas from European gas hubs and LNG import
terminals to Romania, Bulgaria
and Turkey.
“Turkey is an interesting and
quickly developing region, where,
unlike in EU countries, demand
for gas has been growing. The
country is located close to sources
of gas, such as Iran, Azerbaijan,
Iraq and Russia,” he said.
At present, Eustream can move
gas across Slovakia’s western border from the Czech Republic via
the Lanzhot terminal, and from
Austria via a gas hub in Baumgar-
ten, and transport it to its eastern
border for delivery into Ukraine
and later into the Eastring line.
Additionally, Eustream has a
preferential “ship-or-pay” gas
transport contract with Gazprom,
running untill 2028, to guarantee
minimal Russian gas deliveries
via Ukraine to Slovakia’s eastern
border.
10 Show Daily
Monday 8 June 2015
LIQUEFIED NATURAL GAS
Expectations: EGA
chairman Khaled Abubakr
Photo: WGC
Egypt set
for surge
in power
CAPACITY
SHORTAGE
Another 20 Bcm
per annum needed
EGYPTIAN gas demand is
expected to increase significantly in coming years as the
government adds new power
generation capacity to ease
electricity shortages, writes
Nassir Shirkhani.
Egyptian Gas Association
chairman Khaled Abubakr said
another 20 billion cubic metres
per annum of gas supplies is
needed in the next 10 to 12
years to help meet rising domestic demand.
Egypt is currently consuming 42 Bcm per annum.
Local gas developments,
such as the $12 billion BP-led
West Nile Delta project, will
help meet some of the rise in
consumption, but Egypt will
need to rely on imports to ease
supply shortages in the foreseeable future, Abubakr, told
Upstream on the sidelines of
the World Gas Conference in
Paris.
Egypt, which halted its own
liquefied natural gas exports in
the wake of the 2011 revolution,
will need to double its LNG imports to cope.
Gas imports are presently
running at about 5 Bcm per annum.
“Currently there is a supply
gap of 10 Bcm a year, which has
to be met by imports. Since we
are importing only 5 Bcm a
year, we need to import an additional 5 Bcm to ease existing
shortages,’’ Abubakr said.
However, the rising needs of
the power sector mean the
country has to resort to even
more gas imports, and unless
Egypt acts quickly to phase out
energy subsidies, it will continue to see steady demand
growth.
Energy subsidies are estimated to cost the Egyptian
government $13 billion a year.
Cheap gas for domestic consumption has been one of the
main drivers of demand
growth in recent years,
prompting the government to
divert LNG exports to the national grid.
Value chain: Pacific NorthWest LNG chief executive Michael Culbert
Photo: TONYA ZELINKSY
Three wait for award of
Pacific NW project prize
Petronas-led development in Canada set to decide on
winner of engineering, procurement and construction
contract after final investment decision is made
RUSSELL SEARANCKE and
AMANDA BATTERSBY
Paris
THE three contestants for the
prized engineering, procurement
and construction contract for the
Petronas-led C$35 billion (US$28
billion) Pacific NorthWest liquefied natural gas facility in Canada
are awaiting an outcome.
The bidders are Bechtel, a partnership of KBR and JGC, and a
consortium comprising Technip,
Samsung Engineering and China
Huanqiu Contracting & Engineering.
All three completed front-end
engineering and design studies
last year and have followed that
up with bids for the huge EPC
package.
“We are in the evaluation stage.
Once we make the final investment
decision we will probably announce
(the winner),” Petronas vice president global LNG projects, Adnan
Zainal Abidin, told Upstream at the
World Gas Conference in Paris.
However, he could not elaborate
on a target for a final investment
decision.
“Still we cannot control the
regulators… we are waiting for the
environmental permit. They will
determine the timeline,” he said.
Each of the two planned LNG
trains for the Pacific NorthWest
project will come with a nameplate export capacity of 6 million
tonnes per annum.
Sources said the EPC contest is
wide open. There is a feeling in
some quarters that Bechtel is the
party to beat, whereas others are
indicating the Technip-led team
is well positioned, sources said.
KBR, which has made no secret
of its desire to win this contract,
said in a recent conference call
that Pacific NorthWest is at a
“very delicate stage of the bidding
cycle”. The all-Asian owners of the
Pacific NorthWest LNG project are
Petronas on 62%, Sinopec with
15%, Japan Petroleum Exploration
and India Oil both on 10%, and
Petroleum Brunei with 3%.
Pacific NorthWest LNG chief
executive Michael Culbert said
recently that a final investment
decision “is contingent upon core
components of the value chain
gaining additional clarity”.
These components include competitive engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning, pipeline and vendor
costs, clarity in the federal regulatory process, approval of the
project development agreement
by the British Columbia government and projected international
market conditions.
“Pacific NorthWest LNG and
(upstream company) Progress
Energy Canada have the potential
to create thousands of long-term
careers in Canada, provide billions
of dollars in government revenue
to support public services and generate unparalleled economic activity over the life of the potential
project,” said Culbert.
“We expect 2015 to be a watershed year for the province and the
country,” he added.
“It is our hope that Pacific
NorthWest LNG will be the leader
in helping our nation realise the
LNG opportunity that will benefit
generations to come.”
The project’s upstream partners
have booked 19 trillion cubic feet
of proven plus probable gas
reserves as at the end of 2014,
intended to support 25 years of
feedstock into the LNG facility at
rates of up to 2 billion cubic feet
per day.
Monday 8 June 2015
Show Daily 11
GTL PROJECTS
Velocys breaking new ground
US player paving the way with
construction of first commercial
small-scale gas-to-liquids scheme
AMANDA BATTERSBY
Paris
SMALL-scale gas-to-liquids projects
can open the door to exploiting
stranded, flared and/or unconventional gas reserves, especially in
areas where there is a ready demand for diesel, naphtha or jet
fuel, Velocys business development director Neville Hargreaves,
told Upstream.
Construction has already started in the US on the first commercial GTL facility using Velocys’
technology.
Commercial operation of this
facility in Oklahoma, which will
use a mix of landfill gas and natural gas as feedstock, is expected in
the first half of 2016.
This project is being financed
by a joint venture of Velocys,
Waste Management, NRG Energy
and Ventech.
The size of the project is being
kept under wraps, Hargreaves
said.
Although this will be the first
commercial project of its kind,
Velocys has already carried out
three full-field demonstrations
and a permanent pilot scheme is
running in Ohio.
The contractor has also embarked on its second small-scale
GTL project that is being developed in Ohio and will have production capacity of 4800 bpd, said
Hargreaves.
Velocys will progress this
project up to the final investment
decision and then bring on board
equity partners.
Anglo-Dutch supermajor Shell
and South Africa’s Sasol currently
dominate the large-scale GTL industry.
“For a really big project, it’s hard
to imagine that we would be
significantly better than Sasol,
but at 5000 or 10,000 barrels per
day, then yes we can,” said
Hargreaves.
Shell and Sasol’s business models see “them insist on getting a
share of the upstream assets”, he
On site: the Velocys Pilot Plant in Ohio
said, and added that this is something that Velocys might consider
in the future.
“It makes sense, if you think
about it, that you integrate across
that supply chain. We’re a great
believer in ‘never say never’.
“People would have said there
would never be a small-scale GTL
industry… it was almost unheard
Photo: VELOCYS
of even three or four years ago.
Now it looks like this is the way of
doing it, as the big-scale projects
can’t get funded as they’re too dependent on a massive amount of
gas, and very sensitive to the oil
price. We are able to pick locations
where the economics are driven
by other things,” said Hargreaves.
There is a potential untapped
market of up to 25 million barrels
per day that could be exploited via
small-scale GTL, according to
Velocys.
As a rule, 10,000 cubic feet of gas
equates to one barrel of liquids, so
10 million cubic feet per day of
feedstock gas will deliver 1000
barrels per of liquids, Hargreaves
said.
Redrawing the
Global Map of Gas
Visit us at booth B42
You are invited to join the
18th International
Conference & Exhibition on
Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG 18)
in Perth, capital of Australia’s largest state Western
Australia and the foundation of Australia’s LNG industry.
Event Owners
Register today for the
world’s largest global
LNG event
www.lng18.org
Host IGU Member
Supporting Association
12 Show Daily
Gazprom
plan for
Sakhalin
GAZPROM has reiterated its
invitation of co-operation to
the ExxonMobil-led Sakhalin
1 consortium, promoting the
idea of building a third train
at the Sakhalin 2 LNG plant
as an outlet for significant
untapped gas reserves, writes
Vladimir Afanasiev.
Speaking on the sidelines
of the World Gas Conference
in Paris, the head of the
Russian state giant’s far
eastern projects department,
Viktor Timoshilov, suggested
it would make more
economic sense for the
Sakhalin 1 partners to market
their gas in cooperation with
the Gazprom-led Sakhalin 2
consortia, rather than to
continue wrangling over
export solutions.
The existing reserves of
Sakhalin 2’s primary gas
asset, the offshore Lunskoye
field, are not sufficient to
justify the construction of
the planned third train, with
annual capacity of 5 million
tonnes of liquefied natural
gas, at the consortium’s
existing plant in the port of
Prigorodnoye in the south of
Sakhalin Island.
Russian heavyweight
Rosneft — with a 20% stake
in Sakhalin 1 — has been
working on plans to build a
separate gas pipeline and its
own LNG plant, whether on
the island or in the mainland
Khabarovsk region.
However, Timoshilov
warned this plan may not be
economically attractive
given the prevailing low
energy price environment.
Rosneft vice president
Vlada Rusakova told
reporters at WGC that
ExxonMobil and Rosneft
were looking for a new
construction site for their
future LNG plant, initially
anticipated in the south of
Sakhalin Island.
Rosneft and Gazprom have
been locked in a bitter dispute
for almost two years, as
Rosneft has unsuccessfully
sought legal rights to use the
800-kilometre Sakhalin 2 gas
pipeline, running from north
to south on the island.
Rusakova said Gazprom
and Sakhalin 2 shareholder
Shell made several
approaches to negotiate
terms for off-taking Sakhalin
1 gas.
However, Rosneft and
ExxonMobil “want to do their
own LNG project” and do not
want “to sell gas”, she said.
Timoshilov said Gazprom
expects the Kremlin to
become the final arbiter, as
the government is the
signatory in production
sharing agreements of
Sakhalin 1 and Sakhalin 2.
The partners in Sakhalin 2
— Gazprom, Shell and Japan’s
Mitsui and Mitsubishi — are
expected to make a final
decision in August on the
third train at the LNG plant in
Prigorodnoye, Russian Energy
Minister Aleksandr Novak
revealed last week in Vienna.
Monday 8 June 2015
LNG PROJECTS
Forecast: IEA executive director Maria van der Hoeven
Photo: WGC
IEA report casts shadow
on African LNG projects
Agency says no new developments will come online before 2020
due to low oil prices and competition from Australia and US
NOAH BRENNER
Paris
NO NEW LNG projects will come
online in Africa before 2020 due to
falling commodity prices and
competition from Australia and
the US, where construction has
already begun on facilities that
will add significant volumes of gas
to the market, according to researchers with the International
Energy Agency (IEA).
“I would argue that some
might be delayed relative to the
timeline as it is presented,” Constanza Jacazio, senior gas expert
with the IEA’s gas, coal and power division, said in a discussion
about the IEA’s outlook for gas
over during the World Gas Conference in Paris.
While Jacazio was quick to
point out that the IEA does not
model the future of specific LNG
projects, the assumption in the
report casts a shadow on a number
of African LNG export projects.
This includes projects in both
West and East Africa that were
due to come online between 2017
and 2019.
“In this report we see no
projects, neither the ones in
Mozambique nor Tanzania, on
line by 2020,” Jacazio said.
The prognostication also casts a
shadow across projects planned to
come online in that period in
Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea.
The dismal near-term outlook
for such developments does not
mean that those projects do not
have any future at all, Jacazio
said. “Now there are good chances
that some projects may be on line
as we move past the time horizon
of this report,” she explained.
“The resources are clearly there,
are clearly huge, but there are a lot
of constraints when it comes to
skilled labour, when it comes to
development of the resources — a
number of challenges that get
more difficult to address in a low
oil price environment.”
The outlook for many of these
currently marginal projects will
become much clearer over the
The resources are clearly there,
are clearly huge, but there are a
lot of constraints when it comes
to skilled labour, when it comes
to development of the resources.
IEA gas expert Constanza Jacazio
next year, when operators are
scheduled to take final investment decisions that are needed to
advance the projects on time, IEA
chief Maria van der Hoeven said.
“Let’s watch whether planned
projects are sanctioned over the
next 12 months,” she said. “Then
we can see what will happen
because given the lead time, those
12 months actually leave them
with the minimum time required
for a 2020 start up.”
Doubt on the IEA’s part over the
timing and ultimate viability of
new LNG projects is not limited to
Africa.
“We refer to projects in Canada,
East Africa and Russia, as has been
highlighted, where the current oil
price environment is likely to drive
at least a delay in taking (final investment decisions),” Jacazio said.
“It’s quite clear that some of that
will not come online in time with
the timeline expected.”
WORLD GAS
CONFERENCE
MONDAY 8 JUNE 2015
PARIS 2015
Farewell from Paris
WGC dignitaries bid farewell at the closing ceremony
Photo: WGC
Welcome to Washington p14 Women in gas p15 SGN award p16 Youth Event p16 Platform for engagement p17 Grand finale p18
14
Monday 8 June 2015
The US Capitol Building in Washington DC
Photo: REUTERS/SCANPIX
Welcome to
Washington
I
n a glittering closing
ceremony to mark the end of
the 26th World Gas
Conference in Paris on Friday,
the IGU presidency was passed
from France to the United States.
David Carroll was inaugurated
as the new President of the IGU,
heralding the start of the US
triennium and taking over from
French IGU President Jérôme
Ferrier.
His successful tenure as
President was celebrated warmly
at the closing ceremony.
In particular, the French
Presidency was credited with
expanding the membership of the
IGU from 76 to 91 members,
representing 97% of the global
gas market.
Prior to the ceremony, David
Carroll said: “I would like to
congratulate Jérôme and his
entire team on a very successful
three years. Under your
leadership, the organisation has
grown substantially and the voice
of gas has become clearer and
louder.”
Looking forward to the next
three years, Mr Carroll
emphasised the importance of
stability and continuity and
promised to build on the
excellent work achieved by the
French team.
His Presidency will be
supported by the new Vice
City home to monumental records
The Washington Monument is both the world’s tallest stone structure
and world’s tallest obelisk, standing at 555 feet 5 1/8 inches tall.
It was built in two major phases, 1848-1856 and 1876-1884, due to
lack of funding, political turmoil, and uncertainty during the American
Civil War.
Upon its completion, it was capped with an aluminum apex
(aluminum at the time was comparable in price to silver).
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of
the President of the United States.
It has been the residence of every US president except for one,
George Washington.
The United States Capitol held its first session of Congress (the 6th
United States Congress) on November 17, 1800, in the north wing of
the partially completed structure.
Since then, the US Capitol has housed 108 United States
Congresses and has grown to more than 1.5 million square feet.
Washington Monument
Photo: BLOOMBERG
President from South Korea who
will in turn take over the
Presidency in 2018.
Mr Carroll said his Presidency,
for which the triennium work plan
has already been launched, will
focus on three objectives:
expanding access to energy;
growing gas markets; and
addressing the important issue
of public confidence in the
industry.
The next WGC will take place in
Washington DC in 2018, meaning
that for the first time in the
85-year history of IGU, the WGC
will be held in the country that is
both the world’s largest gas
producing and consuming nation
— the USA.
Organisers of the upcoming
27th World Gas Conference are
confident that it will be the
largest, most timely and most
significant global gas conference
and exhibition ever held in the
nation’s capital.
“It is ideally positioned to bring
together energy policy experts
and industry leaders from
around the world,” said Mr
Carroll.
The conference will take place
in the Walter E. Washington
Convention Centre, located at the
heart of the city’s vibrant
downtown, and visitors will be
within walking distance of the
major attractions of Washington
DC including the Smithsonian
Museums, the US Capitol, the
White House and the Washington
Monument.
Washington is one of the top
tourist destinations for visitors
from around the globe, and was
voted “Best City to Visit” in 2015
by Lonely Planet.
There is something for
everyone and many of the
museums and galleries are free
of charge.
Delegates and visitoprs are
already being encouraged to plan
their trips to Washington DC with
all the information needed on the
WGC 2018 website:
http://wgc2018.org.
As well as the conference itself,
organisers are arranging a
number of optional tours to help
visitors make the most of their
time in such an exciting city.
The organisers will publish the
conference programme in early
2017 and look forward to
welcoming the industry to the
conference in June 2018.
Monday 8 June 2015
15
Lively debate as
speakers urge greater
role for women in gas
A
The ‘Women’s place in the gas industry’ debate
Photo: WGC
WGCParis2015 Youth Event Programme showcases
leading women in Success Stories series
Anne-Sophie Decaux, GRTgaz, Technical
Director
Anne-Sophie has almost 25 years’ experience within
the gas industry across R&D, Transmission,
Distribution and Storage.
She currently heads up the Technical Division of
GRTgaz (former transmission operator of Gaz de
France) whose main activities are in the field of
network maintenance, gas compression, metering
and gas quality, and more broadly, the safety of gas transmission
network.
Julie A. Dill, Spectra Energy Group, Chief
Communications Officer
As chief communications officer, Julie is responsible
for directing the company’s communications with
internal and external audiences, including investors,
media, employees and other stakeholders.
She also oversees Spectra Energy’s
sustainability efforts. In addition, she serves on
the board of directors for Spectra Energy’s
publicly traded master limited partnership, Spectra Energy
Partners.
Julie has a wealth of experience in the energy sector, having
served in a number of executive positions at Spectra Energy
Partners, Union Gas Ltd, Duke Energy International and Shell.
She was named one of the 50 Most Influential Women in
Houston in 2012, and the Ontario Energy Association also named
her the Energy Leader of the Year in 2010.
Isabelle Gastineau, Total Exploration and
Production, Vice President Yemen
Isabelle joined Total in 1994 after graduating from
École Polytechnique and École National des Ponts et
Chausées.
After holding successful positions in Refining &
Marketing, she became Head of Communication for
Gas & Power, before going on to join the Group’s
Finance Division.
The next stop on her journey was Exploration & Production,
where she held Finance positions in Head Offices and Qatar, after
which she joined the Asia Pacific division as VP of General Affairs,
and then moved to her current position in 2013.
Valérie Ruiz-Domingo, ENGIE, CEO of Banque
Solféa
A graduate of Paris Dauphine University and École
Superieure de Commerce de Paris, Valérie joined the
Investments & Acquisitions division of Gaz de France
in April 2013 as Project Manager.
She became Manager of Development,
Regulation and Marketing in the group’s Major
Infrastructures division in 2006, followed by her
role as Marketing, Strategy and Finance Manager for the Storage
Business unit.
She spent three years as Senior Vice President of the Global &
LNG Business Line of GDF Suez.
Her previous experience includes roles at Areva and the
Corporate Finance department at Banexi in New York.
n interactive panel on
Women’s Place in the
Gas Industry allowed
audience members to
submit questions to some of
the industry’s most prominent
female leaders from the US,
Canada, Russia, China,
Denmark and France.
Chairing the session on
Friday, Marie-José Nadeau
kicked off proceedings by
stating that to eliminate fuel
poverty a true diversity of
voices is needed, which could
only be achieved with gender
equality across the sector.
Yalan Li, Chairperson of
the Board of Directors at
Beijing Gas Group, provided
some encouraging statistics
demonstrating the
company’s increased focus
on developing women’s
careers within engineering
and R&D.
Business leaders were
urged to adopt a top-down
and bottom-up approach to
increasing the number of
women in the sector by
Debra Reed, head of USbased Sempra Energy, while
Sandra Lagimina from GrDF
France argued that true
diversity within the
workplace offers businesses
a competitive advantage.
Elena Burmistrova, CEO of
Gazprom Export, observed
that while more needs to be
done, the approach must be
organic and disagreed with
the term “revolution” when
describing these efforts.
Many of the questions and
comments that flooded in
from the audience ranged
from how women should
handle maternity leave and
corporate culture, to
positive discrimination and
the effect of quotas.
Thea Larsen, CEO of the
Danish Gas Technology
Centre, admitted that
achieving a work-life balance
is difficult for both women
and men and that
sometimes sacrifices have
to be made on both sides.
Mrs Nadeau concluded by
highlighting the key
professional development
factors one needs to foster
to succeed in a career:
seeking an education,
building experience,
consistency in career
choices, and demonstrating
leadership.
16
Monday 8 June 2015
Innovative Oban project
bags SGN coveted award
S
GN, the UK gas operator
and service provider
from Scotland, has
beaten more than 500
global submissions of abstract
papers to win this year’s
prestigious IGU Global Gas Award
at the 26th World Gas
Conference in Paris.
The SGN Oban project
involved the trialling of new
variations of natural gas in
Oban, Scotland, that could lead
to lower prices and more
secure gas resources if used
throughout Great Britain.
Variations of gas are used in
Europe but require further
processing to meet national UK
standards, which are based on
the composition of North Sea
gas.
With more diverse sources
now in use, the current UK
standard increases the cost of
imported gas.
The nationally sponsored
innovation trial in Oban hopes
to demonstrate that the
country’s national standards
could be revised to open up the
gas market and lower prices for
customers.
Oban’s remote location is
ideal for this trial as the
vehicles transport liquefied
natural gas to the local
network with no connection the
mains network.
This made it much easier to
analyse results and carry out a
comprehensive assessment.
The award was announced
during a special WGC session
on Friday morning and
presented by Jérôme Ferrier,
President of the International
Gas Union, and IGU Secretary
General Pål Rasmussen.
The coveted award was
established in 2008 with the
objective of contributing to the
progress of the gas industry by
promoting innovation and
sustainability.
This year, the IGU was
delighted to receive a record
breaking number of entries for
projects focusing around the
“Call for Sustainable
Development and Innovative
Promotion of Natural Gas”,
supporting the work of the
2012 to 2015 French IGU
Triennium.
Shortlisted as one of five top
projects by the IGU Evaluation
Committee, the SGN gas
project was then selected as
the overall winner by the IGU
Judging Panel.
The judges decided that the
company had fulfilled the
award pre-requisites for
demonstrating in-depth
knowledge of the industry,
relevance to sustainable
development and improved
energy efficiency.
• A short film about the Oban
project can be viewed at:
https://www.sgn.co.uk/Oban
The judges panel
Photo: WGC
Blues storm ahead to Youth Event win
A
n undisputed highlight of
the conference, the 2015
IGU Youth Event
competition winning
team was revealed to a packed
audience at the closing ceremony
on Friday afternoon.
Soaring Paris temperatures
could not dampen the
enthusiasm of the four teams
who presented their final
projects to a voting audience.
Triumphant winners, the Blue
Team, delivered their workshop
presentation on the ‘Response
of the youth to the energy
transition’ with a lively video
using the hashtag
#growupwithgas.
Described as “refreshing and
inspiring” by Natural Gas
Fenosa who had a young
employee in the competition,
the Youth Event has been highly
successful. IGU President
Jérôme Ferrier spoke of the
importance of “building a young
network” as a major driver of
the 2015 programme.
Audience member Jacob
Freeke from Emerson Process
Management, a supporter of
the initiative over the last three
years, commented: “We must
encourage, coach and support
our young people. This
creativity is essential and
without developing their talent
our industry faces grave
problems.”
With a mix of conference
sessions, workshops and
exchanges of best practice, the
Youth Event aims to help its
The Blue Team
participants forge their own
network with others from
across the supply chain, and
equip them with the skills they
need to reach the top of their
chosen career.
The tough competition
encouraged members to be
‘creative and audacious’,
working to tight deadlines
during intense workshop
sessions with the final
presentation limited to just
five minutes and restricted to
production time of less than
five hours.
Photos: WGC
The French National
Organising Committee Advisor,
Emmanuelle Wicquart said
“Over the last 18 months we
have worked hard to prepare a
programme that is dynamic,
engaging and represents the
thoughts of the young
professionals in the industry”.
Agnès Grimont, Chair of the
IGU Task Force on Human
Resources, said she was “very
impressed” with the standard
of entries this year.
Judges were encouraged by
the evidently high level of
engagement and energy from
the young people involved, she
observed.
With an ageing oil and gas
workforce and the need to
attract the brightest and best
young talent, it is clear that
this kind of initiative by the IGU
has come at a critical time.
In an industry that has
always placed great emphasis
on innovation and new
technological advances, these
young IGU members surely
represent a new wave of talent
for future.
Emmanuelle Wicquart
Monday 8 June 2015
17
In conference at WGC
Photo: WGC
A platform for engagement
T
he true legacy of a successful
global summit is the sense of
purpose, commitment and
enthusiasm that participants take
away with them.
From Day One of the World Gas
Conference, there was little doubt that
we had a winner on our hands. A stellar
list of conference speakers made world
headlines while a dynamic and varied
display of the industry’s capabilities
was on show for visitors to the
exhibition.
By the close of proceedings, the wide
range of keynote speeches and panel
discussions had delivered a welcome
and timely boost to the debate on the
future of natural gas.
The industry’s voice had been heard.
But much more needs to be done.
Pressures on the industry to adopt a
more progressive stance on the
environment will only intensify in the
lead-up to COP21, with the implications
of changing climate policy weighing
heavily on the minds of investors.
The need for the industry to set out
its position on these critical issues,
while also reaffirming the long-term
investment fundamentals that will
support its continued development, has
never been stronger.
But doing so will require a stepchange in the way that the industry
communicates its vision.
The discussions last week confirmed
a growing consensus within the industry
on the role that gas must play in the
world’s energy mix, albeit with
differences in emphasis and approach.
The Paris gathering provided a strong
platform on which that change can be
based. So how do we build on it?
As many have identified this week,
our industry is effective in analyzing
and explaining the merits and benefits
of natural gas.
The problem is that the conversation
has tended to be limited to friendly
audiences who already acknowledge
the strengths that gas offers to
customers and end users.
If we are to gain the support and
acceptance necessary for gas to fulfil
its true potential as the fuel of the
future, the conversation must now move
urgently onto a broader setting and
engage a wider set of audiences.
The International Gas Union’s Global
Voice of Gas initiative is a strong
statement of intent.
The ambition to reinforce the role that
gas can play as a core contributor to
economic and social development,
particularly for regions and
communities previously under-served
by electricity and power sources, will be
at the heart of attempts to underpin an
increasingly diversified energy mix.
However, this narrative, supported by
the wider industry initiatives that were
discussed in Paris last week, must be
integrated into a wider and more
inclusive debate about which
combination of energy sources, can
best deliver affordable, resilient and
reliable energy to communities and end
users in a sustainable manner.
There are two key steps to broadening
this engagement.
First is the need for the industry as a
whole to form a unified voice on its
ambitions for the deployment of gas,
articulating a clear and consistent
rationale for its wider use and the
benefits that it brings.
That voice then needs to speak
clearly and openly with affected
audiences — not just those already
engaged in the discussion.
Secondly, the industry must ensure
that it is being represented correctly
amid the wider debate about energy
delivery, especially within a lower
carbon economy.
This includes correcting
misconceptions, particularly around
health, safety and environmental
impact which, if allowed to persist, risk
becoming accepted as fact by
potentially influential audiences. And if
we’re honest, the industry has some
work to do in this regard.
One of the reasons that the North
American gas revolution has been so
successful, as numerous speakers in
Paris last week attested, has been the
discussion around its development with
an audience that:
a) stands to benefit directly from
production;
b) is familiar with lower fuel prices and the
measures that advocate them; and
c) is enlightened about the production and
distribution of fossil fuels.
In Europe, in particular, replicating
this level of audience knowledge and
understanding is as much of a
challenge as installing the equivalent
technological and industrial platforms
for production and delivery. As Hansch
van der Velden, corporate
communications director for Gasunie,
observed earlier in the conference, 73%
of project delays are attributed to
‘non-technical issues’, meaning either
political or stakeholder-related
problems.
Media coverage of the conference
last week showed that the way a
company engages with climate is no
longer just a social issue; it has a direct
impact on the market valuations of
fossil fuel companies themselves.
Increasingly, the rhetoric of executives
is having a direct influence on the way
the market perceives a business’ future
prospects. But this is not an argument
for saying little or nothing. Quite the
reverse.
The diverse and complex range of
external forces buffeting the industry
has rarely been seen before.
The policy landscape is uncertain and
future legislative moves difficult to
predict. And although the outcome of
this December’s climate summit
remains uncertain, what is increasingly
clear is that progress simply must be
made.
It is in all of our interests to ensure
that the gas industry’s voice is a
progressive one and that it is heard
loud and clear by those making the
decisions that will affect the future of
us all. Now that really would be a great
legacy.
Seán Galvin & Jamie Robertson,
FTI Consulting
18
Monday 8 June 2015
In the picture at WGC...
F
rench can-can dancers led the spectacular closing ceremony of the IGU French
Triennium on Friday 5th June, as Jérôme Ferrier wholeheartedly thanked all those
who had worked so tirelessly to make the event a resounding success.
The atmosphere was buzzing in the Amphitheatre as plans for the 27th
World Gas Conference in Washington were laid out.
As David Carroll, incoming IGU President, accepted the emblematic WGC trophy,
he graciously acknowledged that the bar had been set extremely high for his tenure.
After rapturous applause, delegates flooded out into the Paris sunshine to enjoy
the well-deserved France-America themed Farewell party, where a brass band
provided the perfect soundtrack to mark the end of WGCParis2015.