The Gas Value Chain Company

This section encompasses a wide range of GVC related information:

  • ‘Events’ captures activities such as speeches and moderations at conferences and symposiae and, moreover, the appearance at/participation in any such events.
  • ‘News’ captures all occurences relevant in the context of GVC’s business not qualifying as an ‘Event’ but worth sharing.
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Event

Brussels, 20 March 2018

Wolfgang attends the Eurogas Annual Conference: ‘Making mobility fit for the future – From roads to waterways’ in Brussels, on 20 March 2018.

The European Gas Industry Association Eurogas (www.eurogas.org) hosted its traditional Annual Conference. In an effort to foster stakeholder dialogue beyond the gas industry, the event was organized in cooperation with ‘NGVA’ (Natural & bio Gas Vehicle Association). Accordingly, the theme of the Conference was strongly focused on the deployment of natural gas in the transport sector. Read more

The contributions ranged from the use of ‘CNG’ (compressed natural gas) in passenger cars and LNG  in heavy duty trucking as well as maritime transportation. The huge potential of natural gas to contribute to battling climate change was emphasized and the limits of electrification were, at times controversially, discussed. Importantly, the participation of stakeholders from outside the gas industry, notably including Eurelectric, but also participants from the car industry such as Bosch and Volvo and various NGOs stimulated fruitful dialogue. A further laudable step away from having ‘gas people talk to gas people’ only.
Event

Essen, 07 February 2018

Wolfgang attends the ‘E-world energy & water 2018‘ in Essen, on 07 February 2018.

The traditional E-world energy & water exhibition & conference has evolved into a major display of technological developments around energy transition. Wolfgang participated in a symposium organized by Innogy on the subject: ‘Sektorenkopplung ohne Gas!?!Read more

The discussion addressed the ‘all-electric’ aspirations of certain policy makers and concluded that the increase in electricity demand and peak supply requirements could not be solved by further ramping up renewable power generation, namely wind and solar, alone. Wind and solar were at times of ‘Kalte Dunkelflaute’ entirely not available and at times rendered massive solar and wind power surpluses absent demand which had to be curtailed against multi-million Euros of compensation. The P2G technology was the only technology capable of storing large quantities of renewable power over long periods of time in the form of hydrogen or synthetic gas in the gas grids and gas storages.
Event

Vienna 29-31 January 2018

Wolfgang attends the ‘European Gas Conference 2018’ in Vienna, on 29-31 January 2018. On main conference day 1 he delivers a speech: ’International & European Policies in the Context of a Global Gas Market’.

He explains that it was ‘money talking…’ hinging on price spreads between Henry Hub and NBP/TTF and not sanctions that would determine whether US American LNG would come to Europe. As to the EC attitude, he re-called that, in the face of a global gas market, the previous ‘Putin-phobia’ was no longer warranted. Read more Besides the availability of destination flexible LNG responding to price signals, Europe’s ability to send price signals and also absorb LNG thus attracted, he also elaborates, based on the insights of the IEA’s second ‘Global Gas Security Review 2017’, the decreasing response time of such LNG supplies. He also points towards some of the new unexpected potential ‘shocks’ stemming from new interdependencies, e.g. the emerging concentration risk of LNG terminals at the Gulf coast, being hit by hurricanes from time to time.

Event

Frankfurt 13-14 December 2017

Wolfgang delivers a keynote speech at the ‘5th Frankfurt Gas Forum’ in Frankfurt, on 13 December 2017: ‘Implications of a Global Gas Market for International, European and National Policies’.

Wolfgang qualifies the US sanctions against Nordstream 2 as well as the efforts of the EC to derail the Nordstream 2 project as ‘misplaced’. He recalls that the second gas revolution, namely the LNG-revolution, has created and continues to further develop a global gas market which renders concerns about political blackmail due to supply dependency obsolete. Read more

The emergence of a global gas market, with destination flexible LNG supply able to respond to price signals, liquid European hubs capable of sending price signals and ample unutilized LNG regasification capacity, has transformed previous bi-lateral physical dependencies into a functionality of price signals. Wolfgang further emphasizes the caveat of the IEA’s second ‘Global Gas Security Review 2017’, which points out that new interdependencies could lead to unexpected ‘shocks’ and that therefore diversity of supply sources, transport routes and sufficient interconnectivity are indispensable.
Event

The Hague, 23 November 2017

Wolfgang attends the Launch Presentation of the ‘World Energy Outlook 2017’ (WEO 2017) by the International Energy Agency (IEA) hosted by the Clingendael Institute in The Hague, on 23 November 2017.

The renowned “Clingendael Institute” (CIEP) headed by Prof. Coby van der Linde hosted the launch presentation of the WEO 2017 given by Tim Gould of the IEA. Read more

The WEO 2017 dedicates 3 special chapters to natural gas, ranging from projected respectable demand growth (as the only fossil fuel), the proliferation of LNG with exponential new diversifications and interdependencies and also the urgent matter of methane emissions where it demonstrates that a major part of methane emissions abatement would be an economical ‘win-win’.
Event

Brussels, 20 November 2017

Wolfgang attends the traditional ‘BDEW-Abend‘ under the theme: ‘Clean Energy 2.0: Die heiße Phase des Winterpakets’ in Brussels, on  20 November 2017.

The German Association of Energy and Water Industries (BDEW) hosted its traditional ‘Europe Event’ focusing on the EC’s ‘winter package’, i.e. security of supply and energy transition. High level guest speaker was Miguel Arias Canete, Read more Commissioner at the European Commission for Climate Protection and Energy. Besides EU wide renewables targets the intended introduction of emission standards for coal fired power plants was an intensively discussed subject.

Event

Berlin 14-15 November 2017

Wolfgang attends the ’23. Euroforum-Jahrestagung (Erd-)Gas 2017’ in Berlin, on 14-15 November 2017. Notably, Euroforum puts, for the first time, (Erd-)Gas in brackets, underpinning that natural gas is the only fossil fuel capable of becoming greener over time.

On day 2, Wolfgang serves as moderator of the day. Moreover, he delivers the key note speech: ’Status der Fortentwicklung des globalen Gasmarktes: Versorgungssicherheit – Interdependenzen – Geopolitik.

The gas market has gone ‚global‘ in that it avails now of destination flexible LNG responding to price signals (‘LNG revolution’).