UNECE celebrates 20th anniversary of its Working Party on Gas
Geneva, 19 January 2010 --
UNECE’s Working Party on Gas is holding its 20th Annual Session on 19 and 20 January 2010. For the past 20 years, the Working Party has served as a forum gathering governments, the industry and international organizations to assess changes and trends in the gas situation in Europe, North America and Central Asia.
This jubilee session will be opened by Ján Kubiš, UNECE Executive Secretary. Amongst the highlights of the session will be the keynote address by Mr. Alexander Krestiyanov, Deputy Head, Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the European Communities, Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Minister-Counsellor, on “The Energy Cooperation between the Russian Federation and the European Union”
The meeting will review medium and long-term gas industry prospects and policies in the UNECE region.
It will also discuss the preliminary results of three UNECE studies on:
- Underground Gas Storage in Europe and Central Asia. The purpose of this study is to review the main trends in the sector with a view to increasing the visibility of future capacity and investment needs as well as the regulatory, cost and operational challenges.
- Current State and Prospects of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Industry in the UNECE Region. The growing importance of LNG in the UNECE region has been confirmed by increasing import levels and the on-going construction of new regasification facilities across the region. This study will provide additional insight on the future use of LNG in the UNECE region, possible evolution of its competitiveness, evaluation of financial requirements, cost and economics along the value chain, visibility of future capacity and investment needs, identification of barriers and main contractual and regulatory issues.
- Impact of the Liberalization of the Natural Gas Market on Gas Demand and Prices. This study will examine the links between the gas market liberalization, efficient gas pricing and gas demand, and their possible relevance for increasing gas supplies from the Russian Federation and countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States to the UNECE region.
For more information, please visit http://www.unece.org/energy/se/docs/wpgas20.html.
Ref: ECE/SED/10/P01