The Colloquium was held over the three days from 17 – 19 September at Old Parliament House in Canberra. Over 30 participants took part, representing a broad spectrum of sectors including the pipeline industry.
Gas Speak was opened by the Federal Minister for Industry, Tourism and Resources, the Hon. Ian Macfarlane MP. The Minister said that Australia’s economic future is tied to the ongoing success of the energy sector and that Australia is a major energy supplier to the world.
“We have an abundance of the major energy resources. We have significant accessible uranium deposits; we are a major exporter of coal and have ample natural gas reserves,” Mr Macfarlane said.
In a carbon-constrained future, natural gas would be part of the energy mix. “While the nuclear debate develops, Australia looks to transitional fuels such as gas in our energy mix,” he said.
“Natural gas is well placed to remain competitive in a carbon-priced future as it provides a relatively cheap, reliable and clean source of energy compared with other fuels. Another obvious thing going for gas is that it is here now, delivering results.”
The Minister said natural gas consumption in Australia had almost doubled since 1991 to over 1,063 PJ and resource organisation ABARE had predicted that primary consumption of natural gas would grow by 2.5 per cent a year to almost double again by 2029.
Gas-fired electricity generation in Australia is forecast to grow strongly, almost tripling to 92 terawatt hours by the same year.
Commenting on the recent Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting in Sydney, Mr Macfarlane said the government had an ambitious agenda on energy policy and had successfully put climate change on the APEC agenda.
“The Sydney Declaration resulted in consent by all APEC members to agree on a long-term aspirational goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
“This is a tremendous achievement because for the first time both key developed and developing economies have agreed to contribute to a global goal.
“These initiatives will complement what we are already doing through other forums such as the Asia Pacific Partnership on Clean Development.”
APIA has been working hard to raise awareness of the benefits of natural gas in a carbon constrained future, and also on the expertise the pipeline industry has to offer in the transmission of waste product from proposed clean coal production.
The Minister told the young gas professionals at Gas Speak that a career in the gas industry would be “dynamic and exciting”.
Following the Minister’s address, Barbara Jinks of GHD gave a presentation of the role of the International Gas Union (IGU) and Australia’s activities within the IGU. Barbara won an award from the AGIT in 2006 that saw her travel to the World Gas Conference (see The Australian Pipeliner, October 2006, pages 42-44) and actively become involved in the IGU’s committee system.
Barbara outlined that IGU committees set down a three-year work plan between each triennial World Gas Conference. She highlighted how she has set out not only to reflect the experiences from the Australian industry but also gain further insight into international developments.
The remainder of the initial day saw participants focus on gathering and enhancing presentation skills, led by Talkforce Communications’ David Marshall. With a career spanning a number of diverse areas including on-air roles and management of radio stations around Australia, as well as time with the Channel 9 Network, David offered advice that catered for those who had never presented before to those with more experience.
On Monday evening, the Colloquium dinner was held at The Brassey of Canberra which included a unique presentation from Brennon Dowrick, Australia’s most successful male gymnast, who represented Australia at two Olympic Games, three Commonwealth Games and seven World Championships.
His presentation showed the lessons he learnt as an elite athlete can be applied to the business world, as well as an exciting display of his prowess on the pommel horse, in which he won a Gold Medal for Australia at the Auckland Commonwealth Games. While Brennon has been retired for number of years, his skills and incredible strength remain evident through his repetition of the routine that won him his gold medal.
The dinner also attracted experienced members of the industry who wanted to support those younger participants taking part in Gas Speak, providing an excellent networking opportunity.
Tuesday morning saw a major part of the Colloquium commence. Over the next day and a half delegates presented twenty minute presentations on matters pertaining to the gas industry. The breadth and depth of presentations was impressive covering areas from commercial aspects such as gas trading, through to technical matters such as flanges and transmission pipeline metering and broader areas such as training within the gas industry.
In the breaks following each group of presentations, speakers received feedback from a panel of expert mentors gathered from the industry. APIA’s Steve Dobbie and GHD’s Barbara Jinks were two of the mentors who provided this valuable feedback.
Throughout the presentations one thing stood out – that the time and effort put into these presentations was outstanding. This effort was reflected in the high quality that all speakers achieved. While many had previously limited experienced in public presentation, the level of proficiency would have convinced most bystanders that they were seasoned experts.
The final day concluded with a number of impromptu speeches and a debate, at the conclusion of which a number of awards were presented to those who had exhibited a remarkable performance.
The event concluded with comments from Andrew Creek, Chair of the AGIT who encouraged participants to remain in the industry and to strive to become leaders of the industry.
Gas Speak provided younger members of the industry a chance to develop important skills to ensure that they can fulfil Andrew’s challenge. Over the three days, the message from those attending was loud and clear – they are up to that challenge.