OREANDA-NEWS.  Berlin hosted today the 29th Meeting of the European Business Congress (EBC) Presiding Committee moderated by Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee, President of the EBC.

The Meeting participants heard presentations made by the Working Committees Chairpersons and addressed the issue of making changes in the Presiding Committee membership. Moreover, the Meeting adopted the Congress budget for 2014 and approved the key topic of the 17th Annual General Meeting of the EBC: “NGV Fuel and Ecology of Europe”. The 17th EBC Annual General Meeting will take place on May 29–30, 2014 in Athens.

“In the short term the volumes of natural gas consumed by vehicles will be commeasurable with those consumed by power generating facilities in Europe. Apart from the visible economic advantages, the use of natural gas for powering vehicles in European countries will help reduce CO2 emissions by at least 20 per cent and pollutant emissions – by almost 90 per cent as compared to diesel fuel and gasoline,” said Alexey Miller.

In addition, Alexey Miller held working meetings with Dr. Johannes Teyssen, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of E.ON, Aljosa Ivancic, Vice President of Comita and Dimitrios Copelouzos, Managing Director of Prometheus Gas. The parties addressed the prospects for cooperation in the energy sector and discussed the progress with the joint infrastructure projects. The meeting participants also placed a focus on Russian natural gas supplies to Europe, particularly highlighting the growth of Russian gas demand among European consumers.

Background

The European Business Congress (EBC) is an international, non-governmental and non-profit organization, which comprises 141 members from 25 OSCE member states, including such prominent corporations and banks as Gazprom, Shell, ExxonMobil, Total, Wintershall, E.ON Ruhrgas, GDF SUEZ, Eni, Siemens, MAN Ferrostaal, Daimler, Alcatel, Deutsche Bank, Dresdner Bank, BNP Paribas, UBS, Societe Generale and others.
The EBC's supreme body is the General Meeting. The 47-member Presiding Committee exercises general management. The EBC President is Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee. The 9-member Board of Executive Directors is responsible for executive management.
The EBC deals with economic cooperation issues in Europe and brings forward proposals for debottlenecking and building a safe and favorable environment for entrepreneurial activities. The EBC operates through seven Working Committees for: Energy; Industry and Construction; Law, Banking and Finance; Information and Communications; Ecology and Healthcare; Human Resources, Education and Science; Business Security.
Gazprom's strategy for the NGV market development is implemented by a special-purpose company – Gazprom Gazomotornoye Toplivo.
At present, Gazprom Group is represented in the European NGV market by Gazprom Germania and Vemex.
Gazprom Germania owns 20 CNG filling stations that fuel motor vehicles with compressed natural gas (CNG) in Germany. In the near future Gazprom Germania is planning to increase the number of its filling stations to 23.
Vemex owns 6 CNG filling stations in the Czech Republic. Before the end of 2014 the company is planning to increase the number of its filling stations to 16.