On April 8-9, the annual conference of the Balkan and Black Sea Petroleum Association (BBSPA), was held in Vienna and attracted as usual wide participation from industry and regional companies from all different countries in SE Europe and beyondOn April 8-9, the annual conference of the Balkan and Black Sea Petroleum Association (BBSPA), was held in Vienna and attracted as usual wide participation from industry and regional companies from all different countries in SE Europe and beyond. This year, this BBSPA well established event marked its 20thyear of uninterruptible organization thanks to the expert management of its long time director Dr. Valentin Kunev. With an office in Sofia and a small dedicated staff BBSPA has over the course of the last twenty years provided a very useful platform for the presentation of industry achievements and the promotion of an open discussion on latest developments and trends in the wider energy sector.
The subjects covered in this year’s conference, which took place at the Marriot Hotel in downtown Vienna, ranged from upstream projects in Albania and Romania and the broader Black Sea region, oil market analysis and latest gas market developments including LNG projects and the growing European LNG market. Also the legal framework of the region’s energy sector, which is in constant change thanks to EU’s deepening efforts to liberalize the region’s electricity and gas markets, was also examined. Of special interest were presentations by gas hub operators and gas market organizers such as the Austria based Central European Gas Hub and the European Capacity Platform, PRISMA.
IENE participated in this year’s BBSPA conference with a contribution by its Executive Director, Mr. Costis Stambolis, on the role that East Mediterranean gas could play in long term European gas supply. In his paper entitled "the Role of East Med Gas in European Energy Supply” he reviewed at first the latest developments in Israel and Cyprus in terms of gas reserves and their production prospects. He then examined the various options for the export of gas mainly from the Leviathan and Aphrodite fields to a variety of locations including Egypt, Turkey and Greece. He also covered the LNG export option following the establishment in Cyprus of a two train liquefaction plant, the FDI of which will be taken in the second half of next year. In short, gas from the Levantine basin could in the medium term, say by 2024, develop an export potential of some 20.0 – 30.0 BCM per year, a substantial part of which could be directed to meet a small part, some 2.5–3.0%, of European gas demand.
The full text of Mr. Stambolis presentation in now available through the "Conference Papers and Presentations,” section of this site.
