Activities of IGU

Activi ties of IGU

WGC 2018 has been the focus of IGU’s activities since the last issue. Here we present a round-up of other news from the Secretariat.

Ministerial Gas Forum

The 6th IEF-IGU Ministerial Gas Forum will take place in Barcelona, Spain, November 21-22, with the theme “Inclusive Growth Towards a Sustainable Energy Future: The role of gas technologies and innovation”. There will be a report in the next issue. The biennial event was last held in New Delhi in December 2016 and has become an important forum bringing policymakers and industry to the table to discuss the actions that need to be taken in order to support gas as a key contributor to the sustainable energy mix.

IGRC 2020

Preparations are underway for the next IGU Research Conference, which will be hosted by IGU Charter Member the National Iranian Gas Company in

HE Shri Dharmendra Pradhan, India’s Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas addressing the last IEF-IGU Ministerial Gas Forum which was held in New Delhi in December 2016. Tehran, May 24-26, 2020. Iran holds the world’s second largest reserves of natural gas and is the number three producer. The conference will build on the success of IGRC 2017, which was hosted by IGU Associate Member IBP in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and we will bring you more details in the next issue.

Natural Gas Day

IGU is an observer member of the G20 Energy Transitions Working Group under the Argentine Presidency for 2018. IGU and Charter Member Instituto Argentino del Petróleo y del Gas (IAPG) co-hosted a Natural Gas Day on June 12 in Bariloche, Argentina,

c Milton Costa Filho, Secretary General of IBP, addressing IGRC 2017.

v IGU’s Charter Member for Iran, the National Iranian Gas Company, will play host to IGRC 2020 in Tehran.

The G20 Energy Ministers met in Bariloche, Argentina in June.

immediately before the meeting of the G20 Energy Ministers. The theme of the event was “Natural gas: facilitating growth and cleaner energy systems” and it was divided into three panels exploring the economic, technical and policy challenges and opportunities facing the global natural gas industry. Panel 1 identified gas as an abundant, accessible and flexible energy source.

Panel 2 looked at gas as a contributor to climate change mitigation and clean air. Panel 3 considered gas as part of the pathway to achieving a sustainable energy future.

Nigeria is working to reduce gas flaring.

G20 Energy Ministers’ communiqué

A section of the communiqué issued by the G20 Energy Ministers at the end of their meeting in Bariloche focused on natural gas: “We recognise the key role that natural gas currently plays for many G20 countries and its potential to expand significantly over the coming decades, supporting transitions towards lower emission energy systems. We will endeavour to improve the functioning, transparency and competitiveness of gas markets, with a strategic view of the supply chain – including LNG and storage facilities at a global level. We will encourage an expanded dialogue with relevant international organisations on more effective and flexible use of natural gas.”

The communiqué will be submitted to the 2018 G20 Leaders’ Summit to be held in Buenos Aires, November 30-December 1.

IGU-World Bank contribution to Nigeria’s reduction of flaring

Nigeria’s Ministry of Petroleum Resources announced in July that the country’s President, Muhammadu Buhari, had approved the Flare Gas (Prevention of Waste and Pollution) Regulations 2018, to be used for the implementation of the National Gas Flare Commercialisation Programme (NGFCP). The aim is to reduce the environmental impact caused by the flaring of gas, prevent the waste of natural resources and derive social and economic benefits from flare gas capture.

Nigeria has been working to reduce gas flaring and achieved an 18% reduction between 2013 and 2017 according to data from the World Bank’s Global Gas Flaring Reduction (GGFR) Partnership. IGU and the World Bank Group made an important contribution by organising a Gas Competence Seminar in Abuja in December 2016. This brought together key stakeholders to deliberate the government’s linked objectives of eliminating routine gas flaring by the petroleum industry and unlocking Nigeria’s gas potential. The seminar coordinator from IGU’s side was Taeksang Kwon, then on secondment to the Secretariat from KOGAS.

Member honoured

During its last meeting in Washington DC in June, the IGU Council awarded a special diploma to Ján Klepáč, who will retire as Executive Director of Charter Member the Slovak Gas and Oil Association at the end of 2018, in recognition of his long service to IGU.

New Secretariat staff

Luis Calvo joined the Secretariat as Director Advisor in April 2018 on secondment from Naturgy (formerly Gas Natural Fenosa). Mr Calvo joined the company in 2013 and managed investor relations. Prior to that his experience covered investor relations at Endesa, acquisition and project finance at Endesa Internacional and banking with Chase Manhattan Bank NA in Madrid.

Flavia Malet de Hvidbo joined the Secretariat as Senior Advisor in June 2018 on secondment from Royal Dutch Shell. Ms Malet de Hvidbo joined the company in 2006 and is a communications professional with extensive experience of driving creative and innovative approaches to the design and implementation of communication strategies.

Departing Secretariat staff

Anette Sørum Nordal, Information Consultant and Coordination Committee Secretary, and Antonia Fernández Corrales, Senior Advisor, left the Secretariat after WGC 2018 in June.

c Ján Klepáč, Executive Director of IGU Charter Member the Slovak Gas and Oil Association, and his wife Eleonora in conversation at the WGC 2018 Opening Reception in Washington DC.

Anette had joined as a consultant in November 2013, while Antonia was seconded from Gas Natural Fenosa (now Naturgy) in October 2015.

Farewell from Antonia

I can assure you that the past three years have been unforgettable and unrepeatable in my professional and personal life.

I have gone through the special circumstance of being part of two different IGU Secretariats. First in Oslo, where Pål Rasmussen and the rest of his team welcomed me warmly. They also spent time in showing me not only IGU’s activities but also the particularities and customs of

Norwegian culture in and out of work. Later, in Barcelona, I had the privilege of participating, together with my colleagues, in a transfer that was carried out in an efficient and exemplary manner under the leadership of Luis Bertrán, current IGU Secretary General.

It is something unique to work as part of a multicultural team, and in a position that offers such an insight into the global gas industry. I feel really privileged to have had the opportunity to participate in relevant activities such as meetings of the IGU governing bodies, planning and coordinating the G20 Natural Gas Day in Beijing in June 2016, the 5th IEF-IGU Ministerial Gas Forum in New Delhi in December 2016, IGU events during COP 22 in Marrakech and COP 23 in Bonn and designing the membership project.

I would like to give thanks to all the USA team, and especially to their IGU President, David Carroll, and his wife Cheryl for all the support and friendship that they have always given to me, and also to congratulate them for a very successful Presidency and a most impressive 27th World Gas Conference in Washington DC.

But all this experience would not have been possible without the support of my company Gas Natural Fenosa (recently renamed Naturgy), and the President of Sedigas (the IGU Charter Member for Spain), Antoni Peris, who facilitated my access to this position and trusted me in making the handover to the Spanish Secretariat.

I wish the Korean Presidency team led by Professor Joo-Myung Kang every success in advancing the role of natural gas in a sustainable future during the 2018-2021 triennium that also seems to be a turning point in IGU with a growing involvement of Asia.

I look forward to seeing you all again soon. All the best!

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