Eurogas Annual Conference ‘Gas: Fit for 55?’

The Eurogas Annual Conference: ‘Gas: Fit For 55?’ on 25 March 2021 (15:00-18:00 CET) will look to address energy sector challenges around 55%  emissions reductions by 2030 and achieving a carbon neutral EU by 2050.

The event video is available to view below.

Programme

15:00	Welcome speech Philippe Sauquet, President of Eurogas
15:15	Vision Statement for a Net Zero European Union Frans Timmermans, Executive Vice-President, European Commission
15:35	Keynote speech Jens Geier, MEP, S&D, Member of the ITRE Committee, European Parliament
15:45	Panel 1 – Winning the race: Can the EU capitalise on its Clean Gas Tech Leadership? Annegret Groebel, President of the Board of Directors, CEER Helge Haugane, SVP for Gas & Power, Equinor Dörte Schramm, Head of Department Political Affairs and Government Relations, Bosch Judith Kirton-Darling, Deputy General Secretary, industriAll Europe
16:40	Coffee break
16:50	Panel 2 – Decarbonisation of Buildings: A Team Sport/Effort Gabriel Sousa, CEO, Galp Gás Natural Distribução Thomas Nowak, Secretary General, EHPA Federica Sabbati, Secretary General, EHI Monique Goyens, Director General, BEUC
17:45	Concluding remarks Catharina Sikow-Magny, Director, DG ENER, European Commission

The conference is moderated by Sasha Twining, Journalist, radio & TV presenter

Speakers

Philippe Sauquet began his career in 1981 as a civil engineer at the French Ministry of Infrastructure. He subsequently worked at the French Ministry of the Economy and Finance. He joined chemical company Orkem in 1988 as Vice President, Strategy before being appointed Senior Vice President, Acrylics Sales & Marketing. He moved to Total in 1990 as Vice President, Anti-Corrosion Paints and was subsequently named Vice President, Chemicals Strategy.

In 1997, Mr. Sauquet transferred to the Gas & Power Division, where he was successively Vice President, Americas; Vice President, International; Senior Vice President, Strategy & Renewables; Senior Vice President, Trading & Marketing, Gas & Power, based in London. He was appointed President of Gas & Power on July 1, 2012, in which capacity he also sat on the Group Management Committee.

On October 29, 2014, Mr. Sauquet was named President, Refining & Chemicals and joined Total’s Executive Committee. On September 1rst, 2016, Mr Sauquet was named President Gas, Renewables & Power and President Strategy-Innovation.

Born in 1957, he is a graduate of France’s Ecole Polytechnique and Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées engineering schools and of the University of California, Berkeley in the United States.

 

Frans Timmermans began his career with the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1987. After taking part in the junior diplomat training programme, he worked at the European Integration Department of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and at the Embassy of the Netherlands in Moscow. He later worked for Hans van den Broek, European Commissioner for External Relations, and Max van der Stoel, High Commissioner on National Minorities for the OSCE.

In 1998, Frans Timmermans was elected as a member of the House of Representatives for the Dutch Labour Party (PvdA), where he dealt principally with foreign affairs. In the fourth Balkenende government, from February 2007 to February 2010, Mr Timmermans was Minister for European Affairs. In 2010, Mr Timmermans returned to Parliament as the Labour Party’s spokesperson on foreign policy.

On 5 November 2012, Mr Timmermans became Minister of Foreign Affairs in the second Rutte government. Two years later, on 1 November 2014, he became First Vice-President of the European Commission, responsible for better regulation, interinstitutional relations, sustainable development, the rule of law and the Charter of Fundamental Rights.  Since 1 December 2019, he is the Executive Vice-President of the European Commission, responsible for the Green Deal.

 

As Member of the European Parliament, Jens Geier is the head of the German SPD-delegation in the social-democratic group in the European Parliament, full member of the Industry, Research and Energy Committee and substitute member of the Budgets Committee. Before being elected to the European Parliament, Jens Geier gained significant working experience in the public and private sector. He worked on public sector real estate projects at Deloitte, was project manager and spokesperson at ProjektRuhr GmbH and was responsible for public relations at the SPD-state board of North Rhine-Westphalia. Before, he was a policy advisor at the European Parliament. Jens Geier grew up in Essen, Germany, and he holds a university degree in history, literature and political science from the Ruhr-University Bochum.

 

Dr Annegret Groebel is Director of International Relations at the German Regulatory Authority for Electricity, Gas, Telecommunications, Post and Railway (BNetzA). Dr Groebel has worked for BNetzA since 1998. She has been CEER President since January 2019 and was a Vice President of CEER since 2012. She also has chaired the CEER Market Integrity and Transparency (MIT) Working Group since 2013. She is a member of the Board of Regulators of the Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER). Dr Groebel has a Ph.D in Economics from the University of Mannheim. She is also involved in the work of the European Regulators Group (ERG) and the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC).

 

Helge Haugane joined Equinor in 2003 and have held numerous positions across the company in the areas of upstream Oil and Gas, Natural gas, and corporate.

In 2014, Helge relocated to Houston where held the position of Vice President, Finance and Control for Equinor’s North American business. In 2017 he moved back to Norway and held the position as Vice President Finance and control for the MMP business area (Marketing, Midstream and Processing).

In 2020 Helge took the position as Senior Vice President for Equinor’s gas and power business.

He holds numerous board positions in Statoil’s subsidiaries and also serves as Chairman of the BoD of Danske Commodities, which is Equinor’s subsidiary for power and short term 3rd party gas trading.

 

Dörte Schramm worked on mobility & climate topics in the European Parliament in Brussels, at the United Nations in Geneva and the Federation of German Industry (BDI) in Brussels before joining Bosch in 2015. Since then she is driving climate and digital policy at Bosch advocating for a CO2-neutral society and safe innovations such as Artificial Intelligence that serve the people, and ultimately the planet.

Dörte holds a Master degree in Political Science.

 

 

Judith Kirton-Darling is Deputy General Secretary of industriAll Europe, representing manufacturing, mining and energy workers from 38 European countries. She was formerly a Labour Member of the European Parliament for the North East of England (2014-20).

Before entering parliament, she was active for 15 years within the Labour and trade union movement, notably she was elected Confederal Secretary at the European Trade Union Confederation in 2011.

 

 

Gabriel Sousa is Chief Executive Officer of Galp Gás Natural Distribuição since November 2016, after becoming Board Member and General Manager in August 2015.

In January 2013, joined Galp Gás Natural Distribuição as Head of Third Party Access Management.

With more than 25 years of experience in the natural gas sector, began his activity as Head of Commercial Development with the first steps of the natural gas project in Portugal, being appointed later as CEO in different Gas Distribution Companies.

Before entering the natural gas sector, worked in the automotive and metallurgical industries as Commercial Manager and Quality, Health, Safety and Environment Manager.

Holds a Degree in Mechanical Engineering from University of Coimbra and an Executive MBA from AESE/IESE.

 

Thomas Nowak is a long term (renewable) energy aficionado. Apart from closely following the energy transition both in the electricity and heating sectors, he is the owner of a heat pump, a PV power plant and a building in which both peacefully cooperate.

In his professional live, Thomas represents the European Heat Pump Association (EHPA) as Secretary General in Brussels. His main responsibilities are the representation of the industry at the European institutions, networking with other stakeholders in the field of heating and cooling as well as the management of the association and its future development.

Thomas has published several articles on heat pump technology and the integration of heat pumps in the energy system and has spoken on this topic in European and international conferences. He has also been contributing to scientific publications including the IEA energy technology perspectives and the REN21 Renewables Global Status Report. Before working for the EHPA, he has worked in several projects on the economic and social benefits of renewable energy.

Thomas holds a university degree in business administration and economics.

 

Federica Sabbati is Secretary General of the European Heating Industry which brings together companies that are leaders in the production of efficient heating systems. EHI members cover 90% of the European market for all heating solutions from boilers to solar thermal systems, from heat pumps to fuel cells, from radiators to underfloor heating. For today’s changing energy landscape, EHI members are innovating in hybrid and digital solutions, as well as ever more energy-efficient and renewable-based integrated systems.

Born in Trieste, Italy, Federica Sabbati has been working in an international political and business environment, in Brussels and London. Her previous responsibilities include being secretary general of the Liberal International and of the European Liberal Democrat and Reform party (now ALDE). Her business experience includes also working for the Coca-Cola Company Europe in public affairs, dealing, amongst others, with corporate social responsibility and environmental issues.
Federica holds a university degree in International Relations from the University of Trieste (Gorizia base), Italy, and a master’s Degree in Russian and Post-Soviet Studies from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

 

As Director General of BEUC, Monique Goyens represents 45 independent national consumer associations in 32 European countries, acting as a strong consumer voice in Brussels, ensuring that consumer interests are given weight in the development of policies and raising the visibility and effectiveness of the consumer movement through lobbying EU institutions and media contacts.

 

 

 

Catharina Sikow-Magny joined the European Commission in 1997 and is currently the Director responsible for Green Transition and Energy System Integration in the Directorate General for Energy. Before that, she was the Head of Unit in charge of Consumers, Local Initiatives, Just Transition. Before that she was the Head of Unit responsible for Networks and Regional Initiatives. She has as well worked on international transport, trans-European network policy and financing, internalisation of external costs, and strategic policy research.

Before joining the Commission, Catharina Sikow-Magny was a team leader and chief economist in the private sector in Finland. She has also worked for the United Nations Development Programme in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. She holds a Master of Economics degree from the Aalto University, Finland.