Annual Report 2010 311 - Verbundnetz Gas AG

Annual Report | Annual Report 2010
Exploration & production
Natural gas from own sources. Exploration and
production is VNG’s latest division which was set
up in 2006 to develop and expand these activities.
Through its own exploration activities, a profitable
production portfolio is to be built up in the
coming years based primarily on organic growth.
Activities are concentrated on the Norwegian
Continental Shelf and the surrounding areas, and
were expanded to the Danish Continental Shelf in
2010. In a long-term perspective, equity gas is to
account for a significant share of the procurement
portfolio.
Storage capacity grows – marketing becomes
more individual. Apart from natural gas transport,
natural gas storage is a further key business area
for the VNG Group. Consequently, additional storage
capacities will be created over the coming
years both at existing underground storage facilities
and at new locations. Furthermore, present
facilities will be optimised in such manner as
to offer customers further innovative storage
products.
Present and planned storage capacity enables
VNG to provide customers with secure gas supplies
at all times and to offer innovative products
tailored to their specific needs.
Transport and storage of natural gas
Infrastructure is the key foundation for business.
An adequate and reliable infrastructure is the
basis for secure gas supplies in line with customers’
needs. That is why the VNG Group sees its
transmission system comprising some 7,000 kilometres
of pipelines and its underground storage
facilities with a current working gas capacity of
some 2.6 billion m³ as key business units for the
future.
Reorganisation of gas transpor t. Through
ONTRAS – VNG Gastransport GmbH (ONTRAS),
VNG proactively shapes cooperation in Germany’s
market areas and among international network
operators based on the European regulatory
framework. VNG will be reorganising its transport
business over the coming years as a result of implementation
of the EU’s 3 rd energy package. The
objective is the even greater separation of transmission
activities from supply and production.
VNG nonetheless considers the operation of its
transmission network and the marketing of transport
capacities to be an essential element of its
business model. Activities in this regard focus on
optimising the existing network.
Natural gas in an indispensible part of secure
energy supplies of the future. VNG sees natural
gas as the ideal complement to renewable energies.
Gas-fired power plants are ideally suited
to balancing out fluctuations in the supply of
renewables. In addition to expanding its core
business areas, VNG is also seeking to harness
promising new fields. Apart from biomethane
marketing, the main area of interest concerns
gas-fired decentralised power generation and
the networking of such systems, as well as the
development of new, environmentally-friendly
technologies for natural gas applications.
Business environment and energy market
Following the crisis year 2009, German industry
struck out on the road to economic recovery in
2010. Overall, gross domestic product was up
3.6 per cent year-on-year. Despite this positive
trend, the economy still did not return to the
2008 level of economic output. At mid-year 2010,
gross domestic product had only reached a level
comparable to that of year-end 2006/2007. The
German Council of Economic Experts is forecasting
a year-on-year rise in gross domestic product
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