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EastEuro Link hosted its 6th Annual Central and East European Energy Conference on 30-31 October in Turkey. The event was a tremendous opportunity to enhance understanding of recent developments in the CEE Energy industry and gain insights into the future prospects with a structured focus on the regional market specifics. Taking place in the beautiful city of Istanbul the event was attended by a range of energy and utilities companies, investors, traders, advisers and industry consultants. |
Mr. Jean-Marc Leroy, Vice President of GDF Suez and Gas Storage Europe President, introduced the conference and chaired the event excellently throughout the 1st conference day, complimenting the forum organisation and especially excellent location choice.
The first conference panel brought overview of the CEE Energy Market from the perspective of the Austrian Energy Agency, represented by Ms. Kerstin Schilcher and CEZ, represented by Mr. Jiri Sumbera. It was said that the CEE and SEE regions were important energy consumers with 35% of the overall European energy consumption and in order to meet the growing demand a significant amount of new capacity is required. A series of questions from the participants followed, mainly regarding particular projects.
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Another important topic covered in the morning session was the role of the regulators. Mr.
Wlodzimierz Lewandowski, expert from the Polska Grupa Energetyczna presented facts about regulation in Poland and EU trends in regulation.
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After a networking coffee break, several most interesting issues were discussed: Mr. Michael Weiss, Principal at AT Kearney highlighted the importance of the “Local Factor”, followed by Mr. Arkadiusz Wicik, Director of the Fitch Ratings, Poland who provided most useful overview of the Central European Refining and Marketing including a credit perspective. The next speaker to take stand was Mr. Veroslav Jankovic, Executive Manager of Victoria Group who spoke about energy management in industry and presented Victoria Group case study. The positive results of the EMS implementation in Victoria Group showed that it is possible to reduce utilities consumption, to reduce energy costs, to protect environment and to reduce fossil fuel utilization. This session was concluded with the outlook on PPP and how to strengthen the competitive landscape by Ms. Ayse Kolat, Managing Director of the Raiffeisen Investment. She clarified the key factors to be considered and investigated in order to minimise the risk and to guarantee an optimal outcome for investors.
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Following a lively lunch break where delegates had the opportunity to network and to admire the beautiful Istanbul landscape, Mr. Borut Rajer, Head of Renewables and R&D at Borzen, addressed the issue of new energy trading platforms. He presented BSP South Pool regional energy exchange and suggested the way of overcoming the market fragmentation. |
Talking about Carbon Emission trading and CO2 certificates, Mr. Jan Pravda from the Pravda Capital s.r.o initiated a series of questions related to this important issue. A significant contribution to the subject was also given by Ms. Gediz Kaya from GAIA Carbon Finance who gave an overview of the carbon market from CAMCO International experiences and also presented case study of the voluntary markets and carbon finance opportunities in Turkey.
To conclude the first conference day, Mr. Jean Marc Leroy provided an excellent presentation which included the overview of the current situation of the European gas storage market, insight into the gas storage development and opportunities, the overview of the European legislative framework and also addressed some main issues regarding European gas storage market.
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After a highly informative day for everyone, he summarised the wide range of ideas and discussions that had taken place throughout the day. The participants were then free to engage in additional networking opportunities at the cocktail reception.
Mr. Paulius Kuncinas, opened and successfully chaired the event on the second conference day, dedicated to the regional countries’ specifics.
Talking about the Turkey’s rising energy market and its role as a future energy leader, Mr. Bernhard Raberger, Vice Chairman of the Enerji SA provided useful facts and observations about political and economic environment in this country, demography, GDP growth and increasing power requirements. |
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He also examined the challenges and entry barriers at the Bosporus and the concept of Turkey as an energy hub of Europe. To complete the country energy picture, Mr. Alper Zumrut, External Affairs Coordinator of the Turkish Petroleum Industry Association gave general overview of the petroleum Industry in Turkey. |
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The next country in focus was Croatia with a focus on Natural gas. Mr. Tomislav Jurekovic, Project Manager at Croplin gave an overview of the Croatian energy market in 2008, covering the important issues of regulators’ and investors’ role, Croatian natural gas industry, legislative changes and challenges and opportunities this country offers.
The forum participants were also offered opportunity to learn more about Kazakhstan energy potential, major projects, legislative framework and transportation routs from Mr. Kaan Nazli, Director, Emerging Markets at Medley Global Advisors.
Finally the attention was shifted to Romanian development in electricity trade. Mr. Ion Lungu, President of the Association of Electricity suppliers in Romania presented the association, its targets and market accomplishments providing valuable facts about the Romanian electricity market. |
Summarising the second conference day, Mr. Kuncinas concluded that the markets covered in the discussions during the day offered a lot of opportunities and that a significant growth was expected. All the participants joined the lunch afterwards continuing the networking after the official conference closure.
The event brought together a number of influential players in Energy industry to engage in numerous discussions and listen to some excellent insights into the field. EastEuro Link thanks all speakers, sponsors, delegates, business and media partners for making this event a great success and an extremely enjoyable and exciting experience. We hope to see many of the same faces at our upcoming energy events.
Information about future events of this kind and enquires concerning purchasing the presentations’ CD are available at london@easteurolink.co.uk or call + 44 (0) 20 72758020.
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