2004 Guangzhou International Seminar on Natural Gas

Date: February 28th, 2004
Venue: Guangdong Hotel, China

The seminar is sponsored by:
Organizations for the Promotion of Energy Technologies(OPET)
Guangzhou Institute of Energy Conversion,CAS(GIEC)

The seminar is co-sponsored by:
Centre for Research & Technology Hellas /Institute for Solid Fuels Technology & Applications (CERTH/ISFTA)
Energy Efficiency Center of Georgia(EEC Georgia)
Energy Strategy Center of Armenia(ESC Armenia)
Energy Saving and Management Center of Azerbaijan(ESCM Azerbaijan)
OVM - ICCPET S.A.
Black Sea Regional Energy Centre（BSREC）
TaTa Energy Research Institute(TERI)

Workshop Background

Natural Gas is a vital component of the world's supply of energy and one of the principle sources of energy for many of humen beings’ day-to-day needs and activities. As one of the cleanest, safest, and most useful of all energy sources, it is extremely important for reducing pollution and maintaining a clean and healthy environment. In addition to being a domestically abundant and secure source of energy, the use of natural gas also offers a number of environmental benefits over other sources of energy, particularly other fossil fuels.So in the coming 21st century, natural gas will replace the petroleum as the main energy for use.

China, one of the biggest countries in the world, now is developping fast. To keep up with its fast economic speed, how to use energy efficiently and choosing the best one become two big problems. The Chinese government makes up several laws and rules in the aspect of energy use to make every effort to provide quality products and services, meet society's needs for energy, and achieve the harmonious development of society, the economy, and the environment. Natural gas turn out to be the best choice. In China WEP project, which is regarded as China 's national green economic lifeline, is now under construction. Many projects on natural gas are being implemented, e.g. LNG project in Guangzhou. Although natural gas resouces in China is rich and the exploiture of it is fast, it is still shortage because of the large population and speeding economic development.To solve this contradition,it is thought that improving the technology and importing natural gas from other countries would be the best two measures.

South Caucasus region is rich in energy resources. In the near future, export of the Caspian oil ＆gas to the European market is foreseen through the South Caucasus unified energy transportation corridor. But the significantly different norms for the storage and transportation of these resources will be the main obstacles. The low ultilization thechnology is still waiting to be improved.

For the above reasons,the seminar, sponsored by OPET and GIEC,will invite the experts from EU countries to give lectures and provide a platform for communication between EU countries,the South Caucasus region and Asian countries.

Objectives of the workshop