Development and Expansion
As France took over the Presidency for 1970-73,
Bretton Woods system of fixed exchange rates,
ending the flaring of associated gas. This
IGU mourned the death of the Union’s first
and the People’s Republic of China was
culminated in the shipment of the Middle East’s
French President, Auguste Baril. Honorary
recognised at the United Nations.
first LNG cargo in April 1977. Meanwhile, Iran
Secretary General Walter Braunholtz also died in
This was also the Triennium when the
started pipeline exports to the Southern
1970, while Honorary President Mario Boselli
countries of the Middle East, long major oil
Caucasus republics of the USSR in October
died in 1971.
plays, started to develop their natural gas
1970, although its plans to develop an LNG
resources for export. In 1970, Abu Dhabi, then
sector stalled following the 1979 revolution and
order established after World War II began to
one of the Trucial States (the United Arab
the subsequent war with Iraq, and Qatar’s North
change. In 1971, dollar-gold convertibility was
Emirates would be established in December
Field was discovered in 1971, although exports
formally abandoned, bringing an end to the
1971), announced a policy to work towards
did not start until 1996.
This was the Triennium when the global
The second French Presidency saw a broad ening of IGU’s reach, with Argentina becoming
V The Nice conference of 1973 was the 12th in the IGU series and the first to be called “World” (Mondial in French) rather than “International”.
the first member from Latin America in 1970 and Algeria becoming the first African member in 1971. To reflect this, the conference name was changed from “International” to “World”. There was a further reorganisation of the technical committee structure. LNG and LPG were initially covered by a sub-group of the natural gases and mass storage committee, but this was made a full committee in 1972. Work on utilisation was divided between two committees and those for statistics and documentation were merged (see box). In addition, a papers committee was set up to coordinate the technical
40
Development and Expansion
