Gas industry will be both resilient and critical in the journey to a net zero carbon position by mid-century

Summit delivers the latest commercial strategies and trends dominating the Gas, LNG and Energy industry

LONDON, Sept. 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Delegates at this year's Gastech Virtual Summit Strategic Conference have heard exclusive critical insights from Ministers, policy makers, business leaders, disrupters and innovators.  The Gas, LNG and Energy industry's most powerful executives spoke today at Day 2 of the Summit. The world's leading event for the Gas, LNG and Energy industry is taking place digitally from 7 – 11 September. 

Gastech has a successful history of attracting the industry's top CEOs as speakers. The renowned strategic and technical conference programmes feature more than 200 speakers, in 89 conference sessions and presentations.  Over 1,500 delegates are participating in the global Gas, LNG and Energy industry's premier knowledge exchange platform.  Issues impacting the future of the industry; energy security of supply; affordability and sustainability; the prospects for demand and investment recovery; and changes to supply in a post COVID-19 world are top of the agenda. 

Joseph McMonigle, Secretary General of International Energy Forum opened Day 2 of the conference with a Keynote Address, he said, "The pandemic increases the stakes by pushing the demand gap out further over the next decade. This opens a new window of opportunity that enables the gas industry to play a larger role in achieving climate, clean air, and energy access goals."

Global Business Leaders discussed the current and future global LNG market, with Atsunori Takeuchi, Executive Officer, Senior General Manager of LNG Optimization & Trading Department at Tokyo Gas saying, "Our company would like to contribute to sustainable development of global energy market and the implementation of low carbon society and the decarbonised society ahead of it. This is our future."

Faisel Khan, Chief Financial Officer of Sempra LNG said, "We're quite optimistic on the growth and need of natural gas and LNG across the world for some time to come, especially in Asia. We see it eventually as competing with coal on a long-term basis both from a social cost perspective in terms of GHG emissions and even potentially on a price basis for a long time."  Anatol Feygin, Chief Commercial Officer of Cheniere added, "We're very confident that LNG and US LNG in particular will have a seat at the table and will be part of a long-term multi-decade solution."

Thomas Siebal, Author, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer at C3.ai spoke at a Gastech Tech Talk on the digital transformation of the oil and gas industry and the importance of digital technologies in surviving the impact of COVID-19, he said, "When we get to this issue of corporate mass extinction and digital transformation, predictions are that 70% of the existing companies today will go digital and 21% will succeed. The rest will go out of business. They'll be acquired, they'll be merged and they'll cease to exist. This is accelerated by what's been going on. This digital transformation process has clearly been accelerated in the post-COVID economy."

Hydrogen's potential to play a key role in a clean, secure and affordable energy future was discussed during a Global Business Leader panel discussion. De La Rey Venter, Executive Vice President, Integrated Gas Ventures of Shell said; "How important is hydrogen really in the context of our climate aspirations? Bluntly put, it is mission critical." 

Keisuke Sadamori, Director, Energy Markets and Security of International Energy Agency said, 'There's a lot of opportunity now for hydrogen probably more than ever before, so we must start now. What we do between now and 2030 is critical, the challenge is to turn the momentum into investment decisions."  Hydrogen will play an important role in decarbonising the energy industry, today the Gastech Hydrogen Exhibition and Conference was launched, co-located with Gastech, the event will enable those driving the development of Hydrogen and those investing to convene in Singapore next September.  

Lisa Glatch, Chief Operating Officer of Sempra LNG; Tracy Lothian, Senior Vice President, LNG at ExxonMobil; Julie Mayo, Energy Transactions Partner and Head of US Oil and Gas at Norton Rose Fulbright US LLP and Maria Sferruzza, Senior Vice President for Asia Pacific at Baker Hughes discussed diversity and inclusion in energy, addressing how vital it is that companies deploy initiatives to move towards meeting a balance.  ExxonMobil hosted Powerplay Panels, connecting women from across the global energy business, highlighting excellence and supporting greater diversity and environments in which women can flourish. 

Martin Houston, Vice President at Tellurian wrapped up day 2 of the strategic conference in analysis with Eithne Treaner, Gastech presenter, he stated, "Energy demand is growing, and gas is an important part of that!"  The underlying of the Summit was that the gas industry will be both resilient and critical in the journey to a net zero carbon position by mid-century, all gas companies are now energy companies, with the shared mandate to drive a low carbon energy future. 

Other speakers leading today's conversation included: Prabhat Singh, Chairman & Managing Director, Petronet LNG; Niek den Hollander, Executive Board Member Uniper SE; Keisuke Sadamori, Director, Energy Markets and Security, International Energy Agency; Sanjiv Lamba, Executive Vice President, APAC, Linde; Thorbjoern Fors, Executive Vice President, Industrial Applications, Siemens Energy and Dan Feldman, Partner, Shearman & Sterling; Hiroki Sato, Managing Executive Officer & Chief Global Partnership Officer, JERA Inc.; Jun Nishizawa, Executive Vice President, Group CEO, Natural Gas Group, Mitsubishi Corporation; Jane Liao, CEO, Natural Gas Business, CPC Corporation, Taiwan; Steve Hill, Executive Vice President for Gas & Energy Marketing & Trading, Shell; Irtiza Sayyed, President, ExxonMobil LNG Market Development Inc and Michael Stoppard, Chief Strategist for Gas, IHS Markit

The topics covered by the Gastech Virtual Summit include the role of natural gas in the energy transition; the criticality of IoT and data security in the future of the energy industry; the impact of deregulation on markets and investment; opportunities and challenges to the energy sector posed by Industry 4.0; hydrogen's ability to deliver on decarbonisation commitments and what impact environmental activism will have on the emerging growth opportunities for the industry.

The Gastech Virtual Summit 2020 is being held in place of the Gastech exhibition and conference, scheduled to take place in Singapore, in September. dmg events and the Gastech Governing Body, in consultation with Enterprise Singapore and the Singapore Tourism Board collectively took the decision to postpone that event, to 13 – 16 September 2021, due to concerns around the global pandemic, accessibility and the wellbeing of speakers, delegates, exhibitors and visitors.

About Gastech

For almost 50 years, Gastech has been at the heart of the Gas, LNG and Energy conversation. As the world starts to emerge from the shadow of COVID-19, the Gastech Virtual Summit will engage with, and address, the key issues and most promising opportunities for the Gas, LNG and Energy industries in the 4th industrial age.

Taking place from 7-11 September 2020, Gastech Virtual Summit will provide leadership and direction as the Gas, LNG and Energy industries seek to strike a balance between business priorities and their licence to operate, in a post COVID-19 world. With an emphasis on technology innovation; supply and demand dynamics; evolving partnerships; people and talent and governance and influence, the Summit will set the agenda for the global Gas, LNG and Energy industries for decades to come.

For more information please visit www.gastechevent.com.

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