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Committee Work for the 2015-2018 Triennium Takes Shape
by IGU
By Anette Sørum Nordal
x The first meeting
of the Coordination committee took place in Cartagena, Colombia on October 20, 2016.
The IGU committees and task forces are now well into their work for the triennium and are holding their second round of committee meetings. The total team of global experts is just shy of 1,000, with representatives from more than 50 countries. This level of participation and the work undertaken by the committees truly differentiates IGU from all other organizations in our industry.
A key objective of the current 2015-2018 triennium is to ensure that the committees and task forces become more timely and dynamic with deliverables leading up to the World Gas Conference (WGC). Traditionally the committees have presented their results at the WGC at the end of every triennium. However, as the Triennial Work Programme 2015-2018 states, today’s energy market requires more dynamic, active and engaging committees and task
forces that support the leadership team throughout the triennium.
The intermediate deliverables may take many forms. Reports, case studies, best practices and presentations specific to the committee’s study areas, but also, for specific issues, and in support of raising the “Global Voice of Gas”, through symposia, seminars, workshops and publications.
These are just a few examples of their contributions:
IGU newsletter
Over recent months, the committees have started to contribute to the IGU newsletter. A new Committee Corner has been established to highlight and share their work. So far the LNG, Marketing and Communications, Strategy and R&D and Innovation committees have
already contributed and more committees are lined up to do so.
IGU publications
The first committee report is also soon to be released. The IGU LNG committee has worked hard to make an updated version of the IGU World LNG Report which will be released at the LNG 18 conference in Perth. This flagship publication is widely recognized in many circles, both inside and outside the industry, and this year’s report addresses some of the critical questions facing the international LNG industry’s development since early 2015. The months since the last report was published at WGC 2015 in Paris have been a transitional period in which precipitous declines in world oil prices and a resurgence of coal in the power generation sector have created new challenges for expansion of LNG. With many new supplies of LNG expected to enter the market soon, the foreseeable future has become a buyer’s market with further global price convergence emerging.
IGU webcasts
The IGU Marketing and Communications committee took on a completely new initiative, launching the IGU webcast series with the IGU Webcast Live from Berlin on Thursday 25 February. The webcasts, hosted by Hansch van der Velden and Dimitri Schildmeijer, will give a voice to the players and issues that really matter to the natural gas industry. The first webcast featured three guests: IGU Secretary General, Pål Rasmussen; Marcel Hoenderdos, Manager Communications at Dutch State participation company EBN; and Alex Burnett, Chair of the IGU Strategic Communications and Outreach taskforce. The three spoke of global gas advocacy efforts; Pål and Alex gave IGU’s perspective on the union’s work to reinforce IGU as the credible global voice of gas and on the very successful urban clean air campaign that was launched at the sidelines of the UN Climate Conference (COP 21) in December 2015.
Marcel presented GILDE, a Dutch initiative to rethink the role of natural gas in a sustainable energy future, particularly at a time when The Netherlands has experienced a dramatic drop in the perception of natural gas due to concerns over shale exploration.
Research papers and IGRC 2017 preparations
A key role of the R&D and Innovation committee is to support the organization of the IGU Research Conference 2017 (IGRC 2017) by encouraging input from R&D institutes and researchers and creating and executing the program. The committee is currently working on the preparations for the conference which will take place in Rio de Janeiro in May next year.
The R&D and Innovation committee has also encouraged its members to submit research papers for distribution both in the IGU newsletter and the IGU magazine. Three of these are featured in the following pages.
If you want to learn more about IGU committee work, please consult the Triennial Work Programme 2015-2018 at www.igu.org or send an e-mail to Anette Sørum Nordal, Coordination Committee Secretary at aneno@statoil.com.
z Members of the
