This book is a product of investigations conducted within the Global Utility Research Unit (Guru) of Agici Corporate Finance (Milan, Italy). More specifically, it is the result of a project developed by the Observatory on Alliances and Strategies in the Pan-European Utility Market set-up seven years ago with the contribution of Accenture. The project, entitled "Pan-European Gas Industry Scenario - Truth and Lies", was presented at the 2008 Milan annual international conference (www. agici. it). I would therefore like to thank Luca Cesari, Claudio Arcudi and Massimo Pagella from Accenture for their continued support. The scope of this book is to shed some light on a market, that of natural gas, which is highly complex and at the same time of fundamental importance for Europe for at least the next 20 years. We do not intend to build a theory but only to develop a better understanding of the key factors. We fully recognise that the each of the issues we cover deserves further investigation and we are also well aware that we may have omitted a number of important considerations and topics. These shortcomings are - at least in part - justified by the desire to keep the book to a r- sonable size for editorial reasons.
The World Market for Natural Gas - Implications for Europe analyses the main issues for the gas industry: reserves, production, demand, infrastructures, prices, market leaders and regulation.
After an introductory chapter, the book analyses the evolution of gas reserves and production from world and regional perspectives with a focus on rising and declining countries. Past and future trends of world and regional gas demand are explained with a focus on the European power sector. The most important pipelines, regasification and liquefaction infrastructures are discussed in detail. Natural gas prices are examined with respect to the oil linkage, the role of speculation, and the impact of taxation. After a discussion of market leaders and clusters, the book ends with some conclusions about gas regulation in Europe and possible reforms.
