General Session: Stranded Gas to Commercial Reality

Wednesday, 3 May 2006, 1400 to 1630

The World Bank has a Global Gas Flaring Reduction Initiative that has been supported by a number of countries. Global oil production capacity is forecast to increase 60% over the next 20 years, and a similar trend is expected for associated gas production. Much of the incremental oil production will come from countries and regions that currently have large flaring problems. According to the EIA/DOE’s International Energy Outlook 2005, the global demand for natural gas is projected to increase nearly 70% over the next 20 years where as oil is expected to grow roughly 40% over the same period. A significant portion of the natural gas that is flared comes from countries that are located far from the major markets centers of the US and Europe, such as Africa and South East Asia.

To develop natural gas in these remote areas, constraints will need to be removed. New regulations and improvement in institutional capacity for host countries will need to be developed that provide appropriate investment signals for developing both the internal domestic market and export markets. Typically, a large “anchor” project (usually a power plant) is required to develop new natural gas markets, which may require reforms in the electricity sector, particularly with respect to pricing to expand the local demand for natural gas.

Natural gas has historically been transported by pipelines and more recently by LNG tankers for export markets. In remote areas, with smaller reserves, stranded natural gas will require other solutions such as CNG, or conversion to methanol or liquids by GTL processing to become viable.

Panelists will share their experience in dealing with the issue of stranded gas and offer suggestions on a path forward. Audience participation will be encouraged.

Moderator
James Hale, President, Explorer Energy Services Ltd.

Panelists
Bent Svensson, World Bank
Steven Campbell, Trans Ocean Gas Inc.
Xavier Préel, Total Exploration and Production
Rodney Cook, Vice President North America Southern Region, Noble Energy, Inc.

Moderator Profile

James Hale, President, Explorer Energy Services Ltd.
James Hale is president of Explorer Energy Services Ltd., which provides professional consulting services to clients involved in developing energy related business decisions. He has over 30 years experience establishing, developing and managing energy related projects in over 20 countries. He has conducted numerous projects for clients on natural gas transportation tariffs, natural gas marketing, energy forecasting and project financing including natural gas utilization studies funded by various international funding institutions. Hale has submitted evidence to the regulatory agencies in both Canada and the US on a number of natural gas transportation and marketing issues including open access, pipeline tariff methodologies, natural gas pricing and supply and market forecasts for Canada. Hale has worked internationally with Governments to develop natural gas utilization strategies and natural gas regulations to attract investment for the development of stranded natural gas reserves. Hale also lectures for the Pipeline Engineering Center at the University of Calgary and for the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology on pipeline transportation tariffs, natural gas marketing and natural gas regulations.

Panelist Profiles

Bent Svensson, Program Manager, World Bank
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Bent Svensson serves as program manager for the Global Gas Flaring Reduction Partnership (GGFR), a position he has held since 2002. He has been a lead energy economist in the oil, gas, mining and chemical department in the World Bank/IFC since 1991. Before joining the bank he was a gas policy expert at the International Energy Agency in Paris from 1987 to 1991. Prior to that he was head of the finance and economics division in KOMGAS, regional natural gas companies in Denmark from 1983-87.

Steven Campbell, Trans Ocean Gas Inc.
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Steven Campbell is president and founder of Trans Ocean Gas Inc., based out of St. John's, NL Canada. Campbell has a PE designation, graduating from the Faculty of Engineering through Memorial University of Newfoundland. Work experience includes the Hibernia Development Project, various pipeline projects throughout Alberta, Canada and hydro-test/ mechanical completions engineer with the Terra-Nova FPSO Oil & Gas Development Project. He holds several patents related to the oil, gas, and ocean technology sectors including the composite compressed natural gas transportation system. He currently resides in his hometown of St. John's, NL Canada.

Xavier Préel, Total Exploration and Production
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Xavier Préel serves as vice president of business strategy for Total Exploration and Production and is currently in charge of analyzing and preparing main decisions regarding the various strategic options for the E&P business of Total. As such, he is in charge of gathering the best available data and conducting the relevant analysis and also has the challenge of putting its findings into industrial practice in one the most successful major oil companies. This gives him not only a broad knowledge of topics such as stranded gas issues, but also enables him to put this into perspective vis-a-vis other challenging issues of the E&P global business. He has held this position since 2000, the year of the Elf and TotalFina merger.

Rodney Cook, Vice President North America Southern Region, Noble Energy, Inc.
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Rodney Cook joined Noble Energy in 1980 as a petroleum engineer. Since that time he has held managerial engineering positions encompassing both upstream and downstream activities. After transferring to the International Division in 1991 he became manager of Operations in 1996. In 2002, associated with a reorganization of Noble, he became business unit manager for the Middle East and Africa. Cook also served as chairman of Atlantic Methanol Production Company, a 45% Noble owned methanol project in Equatorial Guinea. In 2005 he was moved to his current position of vice president North America with responsibility for Gulf of Mexico offshore, including deep water, and onshore. Cook has been directly involved in the oil and gas industry since 1975. He graduated with a BS degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Tulsa.