GPP: A New Guide Book for Gas
Natural Gas: a commercial perspective
First ed. 2017, XIV, 245 p., 73 illus., 55 illus. in color,
ISBN: 978-3-319-53248-6 (print),
ISBN: 978-3-319-53249-3 (electronic)
Natural gas can be used for heating, industrial processes, electricity production or transportation, as feedstock, or can even be converted to liquids. It is an odourless and colorless, ‘conventional’ but clean, easy-to-handle fuel which is abundantly available. As such, natural gas is regarded as the fuel of the future.
Despite these advantages and the importance of natural gas as a primary source of energy and the fact that in various developed countries roughly a quarter of the annual energy demand is met by natural gas, there are only a few authors engaged in discussing the natural gas business generally – the commercial perspective.
The aim of writing Natural gas: a commercial perspective was to rectify this, and acquaint the reader with the industry's key developments and the experiences of those working in it. Consequently, the topics covered in the book – consistent with today’s unbundled markets – are the fundamentals of the natural gas value chain from production to burner tip and all the stages along the way.
In parallel, interdependencies with other fuels and between international natural gas markets are discussed. As a consequence of the commercial perspective chosen, the description of the technical details is simplified – used to illustrate the basics considered necessary for the understanding of the business. Furthermore, different countries' legal or regulatory norms, and market data, be it for sales, transportation, or storage, are discussed only as examples as these are liable to change while the basic concepts endure for longer.
The aim of the book is to provide the newcomer – be it a student or an (otherwise) experienced manager or lawyer – engaged in the natural gas business with the grounding needed to progress from a basic to a deep understanding of the industry, through a combination of facts and experience gained by professionals.
The authors are convinced that only by combining experience with knowledge or, in other words, practice with theory, will the reader gain a (profound) understanding of the subject. Exactly this mix of so-called opposites is attempted in this book.
Andrej Pustisek, 2Pi-Energy, Stuttgart; and Michael Karasz, The Energy House, Leipzig