Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Management Committee of Gazprom, named certain problems of the global economy that can’t be solved unless the global consumption of natural gas increases: “Firstly, the scope of energy consumption increases due to the steady growth of the global population, which today comes to 7.3 mlrd people, and by the middle of this century will reach 10 mlrd. Today the volume of global gas consumption is 3.5 trillion m3 a year. Within the nearest 25 years annual average growth rates of these parameters in the world will become 3.5 times higher than consumption of liquid hydrocarbons and carbon, and will reach 30% in 15 years”. Another challenge encountered by the global economy, as Alexey Miller sees it, is that main economically developed countries like Germany, Italy, France, Great Britain, USA, China, Japan, the Republic of Korea and India are short of their own power resources and are net-importers of gas. Notably, the Indian market is the most rapidly growing now. Within the last 10 years the share of gas import in the fuel and power balance of India increased by 1.5, and in the nearest future Gazprom is going to pay close attention to the Indian market.

And still the Head of Gazprom said China was the most rapidly developing, the largest market with the highest potential. The largest PRC corporation – CNPC was presented by its Vice President Xu Wenrong. “Since 2000 the natural gas market of China has been rapidly growing, and annual volume of consumption increased from 24.5 mlrd to 191.6 mlrd m3 by 2015, and if we compare the data of the previous year with the current one, the growth comes to 15%”, the speaker said. “However, the industry is still in its incipient state: last year gas consumption per head of population in China was 144 m3, which is only 1/3 against the average global value. However, the gas infrastructure is rapidly developing – we have 72 000 km of main gas pipelines built along with 12 terminals for LNG capable of 43,8 mln tons a year, and 18 gas storages with operating volume of 5.5 mlrd m3 a year”.

Ben van Beurden, CEO of Royal Dutch Shell plc, noticed that cooperation of the largest players within the gas industry is unavoidable and necessary. “Shell related its activities to Russia as early as in 1892, and in 2007 Shell and Gazprom started to work together in the project Sakhalin 2, which was the first Russian plant for production of liquefied natural gas. This cooperation was highly efficient, and we are ready to level up, as new partnership means exchange of assets. We are planning cooperation in projects “Baltic LNG” and “Northern Stream 2”, Mr. Beurden said.

Klaus Schäfer, Member of the Board and CEO of Uniper SE, brought up the issue of safety and reliability of gas supply. “Europe has to deal with new challenges, striving to balance the levels of energy production and consumptions, companies implement new business-models and generate added values”, Mr. Schäfer said. “It is important to rely on trustworthy partners in case of gas supply, to develop equipment for liquefaction and transportation that would allow to diversify supplies”.

Manfred Leitner, Member of Board of Directors at OMV AG, agreed with his colleagues on the matters of partnership between Russia and Europe, “This symbiosis is necessary to ensure development of the regional economy. Gas recovery in Europe is going to reduce by 50 mlrd m3 every year, and shortage of gas is to be recovered by means of import, which means consumption growth is inevitable. Owing to supplies from Russia Europe will be able to reach certain balance between gas demand and its offer”.