The IGU Council Meeting, Durban

x New IGU policy

positions under development were important items on the agenda for the Executive Committee meeting.

The first IGU Executive Committee and Coordination Committee meetings of 2016 were held in beautiful Durban, South Africa, 5-7 April. iGas, the South African host, worked tirelessly to create an outstanding environment around the meetings. Particularly through their Chief Operating Officer, Mike de Pontes, the organisation of both professional and social programmes were excellently carried out.

As described in a previous edition of the magazine (International Gas, October 2015 – March 2016, pages 46-47), the Executive Committee (EXC) meetings have been restructured in order to allow for greater member engagement, networking, and knowledge transfer. The restructured agenda divided the EXC meeting into two parts, the first focusing on administrative issues, the second on discussion and debate. Important agenda items were the discussion of three IGU policy posi

tions under development, approval of phase two of the Building for the Future project and the endorsement of the new Vice Chair of the Coordination Committee, Dr Munseok Baek, after the resignation of Dr Gi Chul Jung from the position.

To engage the EXC members, a request was sent to the members in advance of the meeting for inputs to the meeting agenda. One suggestion was received suggesting regular updates on all flagship conferences, not only the World Gas Conference as has been the tradition. This was reflected in the meeting and will be a standard agenda item going forward.

In the meeting, the Executive Committee engaged broadly in the discussions. The members also asked for time on their own without the management team present in order to discuss the need for a strategic communication and outreach director.

Policy Positions

Based on a recommendation from the newly established Strategic Communication and Outreach task force, IGU is working to develop policy positions on the most topical questions and themes of the current energy debate. In order to raise the global voice of gas, the gas industry must stand together and provide concise and clear messages to policymakers and stakeholders. Policy positions will allow for such concise messaging on how and where natural gas has a role to play in the future energy mix.

Building for the Future

Phase II of the Building for the Future project has performed a strategic review of the IGU events portfolio and looked at how IGU can optimise its events in terms of strategic policies, branding and positioning, conference programme, and the commercial and organisational models. Through the approval given by the Executive Committee IGU will work further to develop the portfolio, establishing steering committees for all the conferences, developing branding guidelines and through other methods.

Executive Committee Workshop

The Executive Committee Workshop provided key insights on the opportunities and challenges for the African gas industry. The African continent has tremendous opportunities with regards to energy and natural gas, but as the workshop also showed, there are still challenges to overcome. Many African countries, including South Africa and its neighbours, are rich in gas resources. Extraction of these will help meet both energy needs and the ambitions to reduce CO₂ emissions. But at the same time, lacks of infrastructure and difficult economic and regulatory environments are demanding. There are no one size fits all solutions and each country must find its own methods to extract resources in ways that will be beneficial to the country and at the same time attractive to investors.

x The Strategic Communication and Outreach task

force held its second meeting of the triennium in Durban, working to further develop IGU’s focus on advocating for gas.

xx David Carroll, alongside Pål Rasmussen,

updated the committee on preparations for IGU’s forthcoming activities.

v A feature of the

Oyster Box Hotel, venue for the Durban meetings, the Umhlanga lighthouse protects the port’s shipping.

v A choir provided

entertainment at the Welcome dinner and reception. Strategic Communications and Outreach task force

Durban also hosted the second meetings of the Coordination Committee (CC) meeting and the Strategic Communications and Outreach task force for the triennium. The CC focused on finalising the triennium work plans and understanding work activities between committees that could be consolidated into thematic reports and thematic sessions at the World Gas Conference (WGC) in Washington DC in 2018. Guidance on the structure and expectations at the Industry Insight sessions and the Technical and Innovation sessions of the World Gas Conference was another important agenda item.

A significant part of the Strategic Communication and Outreach task force meeting was focused on the discussion about how IGU can sustain and create greater focus on advocacy. The IGU’s 2016 Strategic Calendar and the development of policy positions were also discussed.