25 senior business executives and experts from 10 different countries discussed the advances and new market dynamics of natural gas in Southeast Europe, in a series of highly enlightening sessions that took place within the framework of IENE's Webinar "Gas Markets in Transition in SE Europe". The online event was broadcast via livestreaming on Tuesday, June 8, 2021, attracting numerous participants. The Lead Sponsor of IENE's Webinar was Hellenic Petroleum S.A., Greece's leading energy group, while Webinar's Supporters were DEPA and DEDA and communication sponsor the energy portal energia.gr.
The IENE online workshop opened with introductory comments by Costis Stambolis, Chairman and Executive Director of IENE. Then followed a greeting from the MEP and member of the European Parliament's Committee on Industry, Research and Energy, Maria Spyraki. The stage was then given to the President of the Regulatory Authority for Energy (RAE), Dr. Athanasios Dagoumas, the Senior Director of the United States Energy Association, William L. Polen and the CEO of DEDA, Dr. Marios Tsakas. Through their positions, the speakers highlighted the challenges the countries of the region must face in terms of the continued use of gas and its role as a key pillar of the energy system.
During the sessions that followed, the speakers discussed at length the further development and integration of natural gas markets in the wider region of SE Europe, the challenges faced and the prospects for increased gas trading, the gas infrastructure of the future, the new EU taxonomy and the role of natural gas in it, as well as the emergence of new technologies, with emphasis on hydrogen and biomethane.
The speakers who participated in the Webinar include: Prof. Andrey Konoplyanik, Adviser to Director General, Gazprom export LLC Co-chair from the Russian side of the Work Stream 2 “Internal Markets” Russia-EU Gas Advisory Council Member of Scientific Council for System Research in Energy Russian Academy of Sciences and Distinct Fellow of IENE, Gokhan Yardim, Partner and Manager ADG Anadolu Naturalgas Consultancy and Trade Ltd, Slavtcho Neykov, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Energy Management Institute from Bulgaria, Dr. Gina Cohen, Lecturer and Consultant on Natural Gas Industry, Dr. Charles Ellinas, Oil & Gas Consultant Senior Fellow – Global Energy Center Atlantic Council Visiting Reasearch Fellow IENE, Mr. Jorgo Chatzimarkakis, Secretary General Hydrogen Europe in Brussels, Nikos Satras, Head of Natural Gas Business Unit at MotorOil, Konstantinos Papanastasiou, Member of the Board of Directors of CYGAS from Cyprus, Panagiotis Panousis, Director of Energy Transition of DESFA, Dr. Gottfried Steiner, CEO Central European Gas Hub in Austria, Gerasimos Avlonitis, Market Development Manager, National Gas System Operator SA (DESFA), Greece, Mustafa Güzel, Natural Gas Market Manager, Energy Exchange Istanbul (EPIAS), Turkey, Efi Milioni, Market analysis & Back-office Section Manager, Elpedison, Greece, Andreas Guth, Policy Director, Eurogas, Brussels, Mr. Hans Kreisel, Chairman, GEODE, Brussels and Dr. Theodore Terzopoulos, Coordinating Director, Strategy & Corporate Affairs, DEDA and Chairman of IENE’s Committee on Natural Gas, Biomethane and Hydrogen, Greece.
The sessions were moderated by: Dr. George Paparsenos, Independent Energy Consultant Greece, Christos Dimas, Chairman of the IENE Geopolitics Committee, Julian Bowden, Senior Visiting Research Fellow of the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies in the U.K. and Dr. Charles Ellinas.
In his introductory remarks, the Chairman and Executive Director of IENE, Costis Stambolis, noted: “The countries of the region of South-East Europe look upon natural gas as their best hope - in addition to renewables- for a quick decarbonization and phasing out of the really polluting, in the context of climate change, solid fuels. And of course, without the base load and quick response fuel that natural gas power generation is capable of it useless to talk about greater RES penetration in our electricity grids. We have now reached a situation where it is most urgent for the European Commission, governments and industry to sit around the table and work out a new strategy to include natural gas as part of the solution towards achieving the new emission goals of 2030, and not exclude it.”
“A strategy which will obviously include stringent emission standards and much stricter environmental and health safety conditions for natural gas power generation as well as provision for the introduction of hydrogen in gas grids in the near future. To ΙΕΝΕ it is quite clear that without natural gas EU’s highly ambitious 2030 goals cannot be really achieved in SE Europe. This is why this online gathering is important as we have managed to get round the table some of the top executives and experts in the field in an effort to make an impassionate, yet informed assessment of the role and prospects of gas in our region”, he concluded.
