[GGP] Implications of a global gas market for traditional gas economical paradigms
The following is the introduction to an article by Dr. Wolfgang Peters, Managing Director of The Gas Value Chain Company GmbH.
In its World Energy Outlook (‚WEO‘) 2016 the International Energy Agency (‚IEA‘) spoke for the first time of a second gas revolution. The first one is known as the shale gas revolution. The IEA deems the rapid and dynamic development of the global LNG trade nothing less than a second gas revolution. Not only would LNG surpass the share of pipeline gas in global trade shortly, but there was now also a dynamically growing volume of supply with destination flexibility, responding to price signals.
In its first 'Global Gas Security Review', which the IEA published in 2016 almost simultaneously with the WEO 2016, it stated already in its preface: „As the role of gas … evolves, a narrow approach to gas security … in an individual region is no longer appropriate“.
This article aims, based on these developments and insights, to critically discuss and question some of the actual geopolitical and regulatory debates.
About the Author
Wolfgang has been working in the oil and gas industry for more than 30 years: first with Mobil, then with Duke Energy and thereafter with RWE. He served in different senior management positions across the entire value chain in a variety of countries. After an extended period in the international upstream business he was, i.a., twice responsible for market entry into the liberalizing Dutch retail market. Later, he was engaged in the midstream segment: i.a., he served as RWE’s chief negotiator for supplies in Azerbaijan, Iraq and Turkmenistan in conjunction with the Nabucco pipeline project. With Gazprom, he negotiated and litigated about the decoupling of oil and gas pricing. He retired from RWE as CEO of RWE Supply & Trading CZ a.s. in the Czech Republic in March 2016. Wolfgang now runs his own business: ‘The Gas Value Chain Company GmbH’ (GVC). GVC offers its services as ‘commercial operator’ (instead of mere consultancy), e.g. in project management and commercial negotiations. Wolfgang also acts as commercial expert in arbitrations and mediations. He strongly supports the product natural gas as an effective means to genuinely battle climate change. His gas advocacy engagement includes the publication of various articles and a multitude of presentations (www.gasvaluechain.com). Wolfgang has been retaining his ties with Brussels-based Eurogas (www.eurogas.org), where he served as board member for 8 years: GVC was the first company to join Eurogas in the new category of ‘liaising members’.
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