Publications

Gas took centre stage as the world’s hydrocarbon industry converged in Doha, Qatar in December for the triennial World Petroleum Congress (WPC). While oil will remain the most-used primary fuel for the foreseeable future, it was clear – at the first WPC to be held in an Arab country – that gas has multiple roles to play over coming decades. And Gas Matters found that, while Qatar’s export-focused gas industry has become a core element of the global sector’s progress towards the IEA’s expected “golden age of gas”, booming regional demand for gas in the Middle East could see the focus of the country’s future energy investment shift to a more local perspective.

Independent Russian gas company Novatek has grown rapidly, on what it describes as “a journey from being a relatively obscure gas producer in Russia to one international in stature”. Novatek plans to double its gas output to 113 Bcm in 2020, part of a two-pronged strategy requiring vast upstream investment – including an ambitious Arctic LNG export project – along with a growing share in a liberalising Russian gas market. Novatek’s international and domestic potential is huge, given that it has strong political backing from the Russian leadership, encouraging it to emerge as the main competitor to Gazprom. But this backing has made some investors nervous about the company’s politicised position, despite its attempts to secure an image as the respectable, transparent face of the Russian energy industry. Gas Matters examines Novatek’s rise to become the Russian gas sector’s key growth vehicle, and where it plans to go next.

Since the end of the Libyan revolution’s armed conflict, the country’s oil and gas industry has made a remarkable recovery. In the short term, the efforts of the new authorities and their foreign partners will continue to be focused on the improvement of the security situation and the restoration of oil production to pre-conflict levels. And in the longer term, any plans for gas sector expansion will require significant investment, which in turn will hinge on political stability and how friendly to foreign investors government policy is. Gas Matters examines the outlook for gas in the new Libya.

With the UK government seeking to balance the nation’s future energy security with the need to reduce carbon emissions by 2050, the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) is looking to the implementation of a power capacity market to eliminate fluctuations in energy supply arising from a reliance on renewable energy. Gas Matters looks at the challenges in implementing such a plan, and what it could mean for gas.

Germany’s ambitious renewables-focused energy policy, unveiled in 2010, seemed to have dealt a major blow to the gas industry by overlooking its low-carbon potential and instead opting to dramatically reduce gas consumption by 2050. Germany’s surprise retreat from nuclear energy after the Fukushima crisis in Japan looked to have opened the door for gas to assume its rightful policy role – but again, the industry was disappointed. In the first of two articles on Germany’s gas market, Gas Matters finds that while the outlook for gas is currently dim, optimism remains that it may yet be called on by the government to answer a policy wake-up call for reliable energy supply.

The UK House of Commons Energy and Climate Change Committee’s report on UK Energy Security (UK Energy Supply: Security or Independence? published on October 25) provided a useful review of the current weaknesses in UK energy policy. While the document’s scope is too wide to fully review here, it did raise two particular problems of definition that Gas Matters felt worthy of comment.

The past year has seen the global energy sector shaken by a confluence of natural disasters, geopolitical tensions and economic crisis. Against this backdrop of growing uncertainty, the European gas sector must face up to longstanding regulatory, investment and market challenges, as it attempts to stand out as the affordable, secure and abundant option to underpin Europe’s energy mix. So where does the industry stand after a challenging year? Gas Matters gauged the mood at the European Autumn Gas Conference (EAGC) in Paris.