October

October 2012 | Vol. 5 | Issue 3BLUE FUELour countries, which will form the basis of discussion for newarrangements in respect to visas, free trade and partnerships,not only in the field of energy supplies, but also in the exchangeof technology, expertise and project management experience.Growing business cooperation must, in turn, be accompaniedby a strengthening of ties between our societies. Ultimately,Russia and Europe are two parts of one whole: Politically,economically, and culturally.Natural Gas as the Fuel of Choice From the European GasForum PerspectiveBy Philippe Miquel, Chief of Staff of GDF SUEZ, Global Gas & LNGThe European Gas Forum (EGaF) is an informal initiativeof eight major energy companies including Centrica,E.On-Ruhrgas, Eni, Gazprom Export, GDF SUEZ, QatarPetroleum, Shell and Statoil. The organization is designedto exchange views on the promotion of natural gas, with afocus on Europe. Participants do not reflect on any of theirown points of view in particular, as the forum is intendedto be a discussion about various global viewpoints, on thebasis of economic analysis.The forum is composed of major industry players from manycountries, representing each part of the value chain, whilstkeeping the group small enough to be efficient and effective.Since there was no pre-existing place or organization tofoster the exchange of complementary perspectives, theEGaF focuses on specific topics of common interest, suchas the promotion of natural gas, large gas producers (egGazprom, Qatar Petroleum and Statoil) and Europeanenergy suppliers,. Rather than establishing a permanentsecretariat, with the associated bureaucracy and costs,our intention was to take pragmatic and focused actions.Company senior executives were to be directly involvedto address the issues around natural gas targeted at thehighest level of stakeholders.The EGaF was initiated during the summer of 2010 tocontribute to the on-going debate on the EU “Roadmap fora low carbon economy” going forward to the year 2050.Despite its inherent advantages, at the time natural gas wasassessed as being unreasonably ignored in the debate,particularly with respect to the evolution of the energy mixuntil 2050, led by the European Commission.In October 2009, the European Council set a clear target interms of greenhouse gas emission reductions. The objectivewas to decarbonize the European economy by 80% to95% by 2050 in comparison to 1990, aiming to limit globalwarming to 2°C. Although there was a political agreementon the objectives and on the need to control global warming,there was no consensus on how to get to this point. Yet, thechoices that Europe was about to make with respect to theenergy mix in the light of 2050 objectives, were to have asignificant impact for years to come and also for the overallcompetitiveness of the European economy as a whole.There was an abundance of alternatives presented at thetime. While meeting the CO 2objectives, these alternativesvaried in vastly different ways. Some of them promotedthe sole use of renewable energy, others insisted on thebenefits and reliance of nuclear energy, and a majority weregeared a higher electrification of the energy mix.Very few of these analyses addressed the issue of costsfor the overall economy and for society as a whole.Furthermore, natural gas was seldom considered as apossible fuel of choice. The benefits of natural gas werelargely ignored by policy makers and EU-leaders. Thefact that natural gas is not only a sound environmentalalternative but also cost-effective was clearly overlooked.For the European Gas Forum, it was important to contributeto the discussions and ensure that the role of natural gaswas correctly reflected or that its potential contributionto meeting the stated EU objectives was, at the least,adequately assessed. It was also important to demonstratethe potential role of natural gas in the construction of aContinues on page 20www.gazpromexport.com | newsletter@gazpromexport.com | +7 (499) 503-61-61 | comm@gazpromexport.com 19ÝÊÑÏÎÐÒ