'Shale gas will not be as important in Europe as in the US'

For the international oil companies, like Shell, BP, Total and ExxonMobil, gas is rapidly becoming more important, perhaps even more important than oil. How does this impact the midstream energy companies in Europe like GDF Suez, Eon, RWE and Enel? And how does it impact the work of Eurogas?

BP, Shell and Total are members of Eurogas. They have brought a new dynamism to our work. They are large producers and when they take major investment decisions they have to be sure that the demand will be there in future. They share concerns that the current political declarations at EU level tend to
Most of our members are willing to maintain oil-linked long-term contracts. But we have to settle the present difficulties
underestimate the role of gas after 2030, which in turns puts their major investment plans into question. This makes them more vocal about the role of gas in the energy mix. The Russians are also concerned about this. They want to be sure they are part of a bullish market in the coming decades. If you look at the energy roadmap and scenarios under discussion in the EU, the importance of gas starts to go down around 2030. We say, hang on there, gas will become more important in power generation. And we don’t really accept that it will become less important for households.

But isn’t it implied in the concept of a transition or bridging fuel – as gas is often described – that at a certain point it will become less important?

We don’t use those words anymore. We see a very positive long-term future for gas. And we want to change the mental set of people in that direction.

According to the decarbonisation roadmap of the European Commission, by 2050 virtually the entire power sector must be decarbonised. What role will there be for gas then?

First of all, this roadmap was produced by the Directorate-General of Climate Action. DG Energy is also working on a roadmap that will come out after the summer. It is not yet clear what this will look like. But we may need to consider at what point some form of carbon capture and storage could be introduced for gas. It is still early for that. Until 2030 the best solution is to change from coal-fired to gas-fired power. After 2030 it is obvious that we will need new technologies to achieve these objectives, including perhaps some form of CCS for gas.

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