Europe's Utilities Trudge Upstream

摘要

European utilities have spent several years seeking to raise the proportion of their gas sales covered by their own upstream assets, only to miss their targets in many cases. Gaz de France (GDF) — which officially merged with Suez this week — set a tough target in 2000, when it first became an offshore operator, of producing 15% of its gas needs by 2005 (WGI Aug.24'00,pl). The company made progress, but not quite enough to meet its target, producing 6.5 billion cubic meters (629 million cubic feet per day) of gas equivalent, including liquids, both in 2005 and last year. That amounted to 10.6% of group sales in 2005 and 11.2% in 2007.