IGU elects the next Secretary General

With a record turnout of 155 delegates during its regular session taking place this time in St. Petersburg, Russia, Torstein Indreboe of  the newly formed joint company of StatoilHydro in Norway was elected to take over as IGU Secretary General from Mr. Peter Storm of Danish company, Dong Energy A/S. Mr Indreboe has been elected for a period of 6 years, in accordance with the IGU Article of Associations, and he will head the IGU Secretariat from the StatoilHydro premises in Oslo.  StatoilHydro is the new company established as a result of the merger of Statoil and Hydro’s Oil & Gas activites.

Mr Indreboe will work alongside the IGU President, Mr. Ernesto Lopez Anadón of Argentina. It is the IGU Council that elects both the President and Secretary General.On Wednesday 24 October, Mr. Indreboe was unanimously elected by the IGU Council after previously having been endorsed by the IGU Executive Committee. Norway won the prestigious role as the host for the IGU Secretariat in 2005 in a ballot of three IGU member countries.

“We thank very much Peter Storm for his oustanding job he did during his 7 years as Secretary General, not only helping 3 Presidents but also helping promote and enhance the growth of IGU. We congratulate Torstein Indreboe on his election and look forward to continue working with him and to a continued fruitful and productive cooperation with the Secretariat”, says Ernesto Lopez Anadón, IGU President.

Mr. Indreboe will be working closely with the Argentine Presidency leading up to the 24th World Gas Conference in Buenos Ai-res in October 2009. After this, the IGU President will be Datuk Abdul Rahim HJ. Hashim, the current IGU Vice President. The Malaysian Presidency will conclude with the 25th World Gas Conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.  The IGU presidency will have the role of host for the World Gas Conference (WGC), which will next be held in Buenos Aires in Argentina. The IGU or-ganises several conferences of which the WGC, which takes place every third year, is the biggest and most important. President Anadón and his staff have their office address in Buenos Aires. In 2012, the WGC will be held in Malaysia.

“After having worked with all parts of the gas chain since the 1980s, I’m now looking forward to serving the Presidency and the members of IGU, and it is my aim to continue the good work performed by the Danish Secretariat”, Mr. Indreboe says.
“I would also underline that the industry must work hard to ensure that natural gas continues to be the fuel of choice. IGU is the only global organisation with its focus on natural gas, and has a key role to play as the spokesman for the gas industry. In that respect, the Argentine Presidency has established an excellent working programme for this Triennuim to ensure that IGU
addresses and develops solutions for the challenges ahead”.

During its session in St. Petersburg IGU adopted one new Charter member, namely Bulgaria as well as three new Associate members, namely INGAA of the USA, China National Petroleum Corporation of P.R. China and TAQA, Arab Company for Gas, of Egypt. This brings the total number of IGU members to 100 and further cements the importance of IGU and the truly global reach and coverage of the work carried out in the IGU committees.

StatoilHydro to host Secretariat
During the 2005 ballot in Tianjin, P.R China, Norway was elected to head the IGU Secretariat and StatoilHydro will be the host. In this regard, the company will make premises and two people, including the Secretary General, available to the IGU. Along-side Mr Indreboe is also Erik Gonder, relieved of his duties in StatoilHydro to work for the IGU Secretariat. Mr Indreboe is also joined by Hans Riddervold, who has several years' experience in IGU, as well as Barbara Schmid who is seconded to the IGU for a two-year period from the German energy company, RWE, a longstanding IGU member. Barbara Schmid has already served the IGU Secretariat for one year working with the outgoing Secretary General Mr. Peter Storm.

_{Peter Storm outgoing Secretary General of IGU, signed the IGU service agreement on 27 September 2007 with Tore Torvund, now an Executive Vice President in StatoilHydro ASA, in connection with the preparations for transfer of the IGU Secretariat from Denmark to Norway. Front row from left: Tore Torvund and Peter Storm. Second row from left: Erik Gonder of StatoilHydro and the IGU secretariat, Torstein Indreboe of Statoil-Hydro and new IGU secretary general, Gro Mjellem of the Norwegian Petroleum Society/Norwegian Gas Society and Hans Riddervold, also of the IGU Secretariat and the Norwegian Petroleum Society/Norwegian Gas Society.}

International Gas Union (IGU) is a global non-commercial, non-political and non-governmental organisation. Established in 1931 with the purpose to promote the technical and economic progress of the gas industry, it now has 100 members from 70 countries all over the world, representing over 95% of the global gas market. IGU members are generally the most representative gas organisations or com-panies of a country, which may encompass producers, transporters, distributors, and technological and scientific institutes. IGU is registered in Vevey, Switzerland with the Secretariat located in Oslo, Norway, hosted by newly formed joint company StatoilHydro ASA.