Total's Sauquet Takes over at Eurogas
The head of gas, renewables and power at French major Total is the new president of lobby group Eurogas, it said June 28. The members had met in Oslo to approve the motion to support the transition to a climate neutral EU.
Philippe Sauquet takes over the association presidency from Klaus Schaefer, the former head of German utility Uniper. Many of Eurogas' members, such as Uniper, also have coal-fired assets but Total has been out of coal generation, trade and marketing for three years and is focusing on gas-fired and solar power.
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Commenting on his nomination, Sauquet said that he was “pleased and honoured" to be head of an organisation whose aim is to promote gas as an "indispensable complement to renewables, intermittent by nature, and an obvious fast track to lowering carbon intensity of the EU energy mix. Eurogas will therefore advocate for the fair share of gas in the energy mix, that is economically sustainable, socially acceptable, offering security of supply, consistency with EU’s climate goals,” he added. “In this regard, Eurogas supports the transition to a climate-neutral EU in line with the Paris Agreement and calls for the European institutions to develop a policy framework that will encourage investments in the scale up competitive decarbonisation technologies in Europe, fit for that future.”
Eurogas' secretary-general James Watson said the decision to support the transition to a climate-neutral EU "underlines the support of the gas industry to decarbonising the EU energy mix. This is an objective that all stakeholders should embrace. We need to make sure that the right frameworks are put in place for the necessary investments in the gas sector, including potential targets for renewable and decarbonised gas.”