EastEuro Link hosted its South and East European Energy Conference on 26th and 27th February in Romania with participants and speakers from all over the region in attendance. Taking place in the Pullman World Trade Centre Hotel, the event was supported by a host of associate sponsors and media partners involved in the energy sector.

The first speaker who overviewed the importance of SEE Energy was Mr. Lucian Palade, Market Development Director at Opcom. He concluded that creation of a regional spot needs keen effort, permanent flexibility, definitely respect to the partners. This was followed by another most interesting speech by Mr. Andreas Ranet, Director at Poyry Energy Consulting who pointed out the major strategic importance of the SEE Region for the European Union’s energy security.

The panel to follow dynamic networking coffee break was focused on examining the investment potential for new projects.

Mr. Kemal Ozmen, Director of Dispute Analysis & Investigations practice in Romania and Southeast Europe, at PriceWaterHouseCoopers gave thorough analysis of Non-technical losses and concluded that they are a significant economic impact to any distribution company. The next speaker to take stand was Mr. Michael Weiss, Vice-President at A.T. Kearney who spoke about strengths and weaknesses of privatization of energy markets in SEE Region ,looking at how privatization of state owned utility companies in SEE Europe have gained movement over the years. This was followed by Insight into financing successful energy projects by Mr. Anees Iqbal, Managing Director at Maicon Associates Limited. The last speaker in this panel was Mr. Ion Lungu,General Director at CEZ Trade who gave an insight into investments in electricity infrastructure.

Following a lunch break where delegates took opportunity for additional networking, Mr. Haluk Bilgic from Gide Loyrette Nouel overviewed the Turkish Electricity Market Regulatory Framework. The speaker to follow was Mr. Jan Pravda form Pravda Capital s.r.o. who spoke about Carbon emission trading and CO2 Certificates joined by Mr. Valentin Ghius, Country Manager Romania at Carbon Warehouse Ltd.

After the afternoon refreshment break Mr. Konstantin Petrov overviewed the regulatory development in South East Europe providing the examples from the Balkans. To conclude the first conference day Mr. Vladimir Stepan, Partner at ENA Ltd. spoke about Trends in the Gas Market.

After a highly informative day, the participants were then free to engage in additional networking opportunities at the cocktail reception.

Mr. Eduard Ciocanescu from A.T. Kearney, opened and chaired the second conference day. To begin the morning panel dedicated to Country Highlights, Mrs. Dana Dunel, Partner and Head of Energy, Oil and Gas Department at Bostina & Associates presented the development of Romanian Energy Systems. The next speaker to take the stand was Mrs. Ioana Gheorghiade, CFA Deputy Head of Project Finance at Erste Bank Group at Banca Comerciala Romana. She overviewed wind power in the SEE Region. Mr. Niko Iliadis then spoke about Greece as Gateway to SEE Region. The final speech was given by Mr. Gheorghe Olteanu, President and CEO at ICEMENERG Romania who provided the solutions for energetic security and for the reindustrialization of Romania.

Mr. Ciocancescu concluded the official conference programme and all the participants joined the lunch afterwards continuing the networking after the official conference closure.

EastEuro Link thanks all delegates and speakers for attending the event and hopes to see many of the same faces at its future Energy events.

To hear information about future events of this kind, or to enquire about purchasing the presentations CD, please contact us at london@easteurolink.co.uk or call + 44 (0) 207 275 8020.