Marcelino Oreja: We are living in the golden age of gas

The CEO of Spain's Enagás, Marcelino Oreja, discusses the latest energy opportunities, including the EU's Energy Union programme

Transcript

Until 2010, Enagás was dedicated to the Spanish energy market. Since 2011 the company has been expanding internationally. Enagás’ CEO, Marcelino Oreja, explains where the business is investing – and why.

Global energy demand has international gas companies shifting their business strategies to stay ahead of the curve. 

Marcelino Oreja joins me to share one such institution’s strategy for continued growth. 

European CEO: So tell me, how has global energy demand impacted your business strategy?

Marcelino Oreja: This has impacted very positively our strategy, until 2010 Enagás was only dedicated to the Spanish market.  We have 45 years of experience; we are leaders in this market. And since 2011, we’ve started to grow internationally, because of the growth of energy demand and also, of course, because gas demand is increasing.

We are living what is said to be a ‘Golden Age of Gas’. This has been very positive for us, and in the future, there are plenty of opportunities for our company to grow internationally, and take advantage of our expertise, as leaders in this market.

European CEO: In looking for those opportunities, what sort of partnerships have you brokered? Tell me about the returns you have seen as result?

Marcelino Oreja: As a company, our track record is very important. So we are looking for stable returns and we are looking for many opportunities around the world.  Only investing where we think our return is going to be predictable. This is why we’ve analysed more than 200 projects in the last four years, and we’ve only invested in 10 projects lately.

European CEO: So tell me, what has been the shareholder reaction to these moves?

Marcelino Oreja: Many of our shareholders are long-term shareholders. So they have been very positive with those returns, again the track record has come along with our investments.

So our shareholders for the moment are still with us – we have many shareholders, actually, here also in London. And, 75 percent of our shareholders are international and they are very close to us, pushing us to increase our international expansion.

European CEO: And are they less or more concern about, short-term profits?

Marcelino Oreja: As I was saying, they are long-term investors. So, many of them are looking for the long-term but, of course, we have to commit to our investments and their returns in the short-term.

So they are looking for our returns this year, and the year after, but also always looking that our investments have a sense in the long-term. In the energy sector, long-term is very important. We are investing in 30 or 40 years time.

European CEO: Tell me about how EU energy policy has led to new benchmarks for diversity of supply? I mean, has this been a positive change for you?

Marcelino Oreja: For us it is very important; we are committed to the European Union.  It has launched recently the ‘Energy Union Programme’, looking to establish a real network of energy, within the European Union; a physical network.

This is why we are investing in connections between Spain and France, called the MIDCAT a big pipeline connecting Spain with Europe. We are investing in a very important pipeline connecting Azerbaijan with Europe that will secure supply for the European Union.

European CEO: As you diversify into those other sectors, tell me who is your new customer base?

Marcelino Oreja: Enagás doesn’t really have customers; we have users of our facilities. Until 2010-11 we were only dedicated to the Spanish market. At that time, we had all the Spanish commercialisers that were using our network in Spain.

Since then, we became international; we have operations in eight different countries. So we have partners in those countries that use our facilities, and state owned or private companies that use our facilities. Of course, this has changed a lot the way we work and changed the company also.

European CEO: Very interesting. Marcelino thank you so much for joining me today.

Marcelino Oreja: Thank you very much for the questions and for the opportunity to be here today.