Summit Notebook

Kinder: wind, solar not the answer to U.S. energy needs

Rich Kinder, CEO of Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, says the Obama Administration’s push to develop alternative energy sources such as wind and solar are not the answer to reducing the nation’s dependence on oil or reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Click below to hear where Kinder thinks the U.S. should be focusing its attention.

Kinder: wind, solar not the answer from Reuters TV on Vimeo.

A cartel for gas, how useful is that?

The Reuters Middle East Investment Summit team asks Majid Jafar, executive director of UAE’s Crescent Petroleum and board member of Dana Gas, what he thinks of the idea of an OPEC-style gas cartel? He says that it would definitely benefit the whole industry as OPEC does to its members.

But he warns the cost of transporting gas would be one of the challenges as opposed to oil, which is traded with ease as many tankers wander the waters of the world.

The cartel will help member states have a constant dialogue t arrive at a shared learning and coordination of action, Jafar says.

Last night, Russia, Iran and Qatar, which control 60 percent of the world’s gas reserves, said they were forming an OPEC-style gas cartel. Western concerns mounted after this move, that is seen as a step that could drive up prices.

Natural gas, the cleanest of the fossil fuels, now makes up about 20 percent the energy used in the United States, the world’s top consumer.

Will environment be forgotten in crisis? OMV says no.

There are some who say the economic downturn means ambitious plans to fight global warming should be put on ice.

But Wolfgang Ruttenstorfer, the head of Austrian oil and gas group OMV, reckons cutting carbon emissions is inevitable in the long run, despite the financial crisis and its impact. 

“I think the price signals of the last two years will not be forgotten by consumers and politicians and therefore the thrust towards renewables will continue, maybe at a slightly slower pace,” he told the Reuters Central European Investment Summit. 

For some, going green is a luxury in harder economic times: Poland and Italy aren’t too happy about European Union legislation to fight climate change and say it could hurt their economies at a time of slower growth.

The EU has stressed that climate plans will be affordable but as the worst financial crisis in 80 years continues to unfold there are doubts over whether there will be enough money or willpower to invest in cleaner energies.

“We stay committed,” Ruttenstorfer says. “We have our future energy fund and we will continue to work on this and definitely not put it on the shelf.”

OMV has been aiming to make its refining more environmentally-sound, to cut down on carbon dioxide emissions and is participating in pilot carbon capture projects. Cleaner gas-fired power plants are also seen as a good option by the company.

AUDIO – Gazprom: “We are mutually dependent”

A quarter of the gas that heats European homes and powers European industry is piped in thousands of kilometres from the Russian tundra. By 2015, Russia’s share of European gas supplies will rise to at least one third. That powerful lever of influence over Europe’s economy raises the stakes in its confrontation with Russia over its invasion of Georgia.

But Alexander Medvedev, deputy chief executive of Russia’s state gas export monopoly Gazprom, opened the Reuters Russia Investment Summit on Monday with a reminder that even the mighty Gazprom is not invulnerable to Europe and the West, relying as it does on foreign revenue and capital.