The Commercial Aspects of LNG

Our client was one of the world's largest LNG producers, facing the challenges of developing their commercial function to match huge recent growth in LNG production. We were asked to develop a training programme for front-line commercial staff aimed at giving them a broad perspective on the LNG industry but also providing more in-depth understanding of LNG sales contracts.

We delivered an on-site concentrated programme for around 20 of the client's staff, combining conventional teaching with relevant exercises. For the LNG contract issues we used one of the client's own contracts as an example and conducted a "walk-through" of the contract facilitated by staff with deep experience of LNG contracting issues.

The programme was successful in providing "accelerated learning" to front-line commercial staff and developing a broader understanding of the LNG contract issues than would be possible with "on the job" training. The programme was also an excellent team-building exercise and helped consolidate a relatively new team.

Implementing a global capability development structure for an international organisation

As our client’s current programme for new recruits was fragmented and outdated, Gas Strategies was consulted to design a broad introduction to the global energy industry early in their careers. The programme would be an initial element of a structured learning framework in which required competences are matched to job responsibilities.

With the objective to equip the participants with a robust understanding of the energy industry’s mechanisms at both at a global and national level, we delivered the programme through formal presentations interspersed with short team exercises including interpretation of data and simple calculations addressing decision making in the chain.

A longer role play exercise in teams running through the course encouraged the participants to apply the knowledge being gained to deal with dilemmas faced in the energy industry. Recapitulation sessions were conducted in which the participants reflect on the key learning points, helping to consolidate their learning. Course feedback from the participants was carefully reviewed jointly with the client as a basis for evaluation and improvement for the future roll-out sessions.

The capability development programme is now established and receives high ratings from participants who find it useful and enjoyable. Working with us, our client has created a training module that is unique and which gives its new recruits a fundamental, broad understanding of the energy industry.