World Energy Council Austria commences cooperation with OPEC

 

 

The current and future developments in the oil and gas sector are of essential importance for the whole energy market. Given this importance, the World Energy Council Austria and the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries determined ongoing cooperation in July 2016.

It was agreed that future collaboration on activities such as events and information sharing as well as ongoing dialogue between OPEC and the World Energy Council was crucial. This cooperation successfully started with a first exchange on 14 September when the World Energy Council Austria and its Young Energy Professionals visited the OPEC Headquarters in Vienna.

 

At the inaugural event, Senior Public Relations Assistant Mr Mahid Al-Saigh gave a comprehensive insight on the work, duties and the organisational structure of OPEC.

The representatives of the Council’s Austrian member committee and Young Energy Professionals Program were introduced to the work of the Data Services Department by Dr Hossein Hassani and informed about the Petroleum Studies tools of OPEC by Mr. Alzerma.

Research Analyst Dr Eleni Kaditi gave an overview of OPEC’s recent efforts regarding environmental matters as well as the organisation’s progress on the Paris Agreement.

Even though the Young Energy Professionals represent different divisions of the energy sector, the presentations on the various fields of work of OPEC were extremely interesting, not least given the long-term dependence of electricity rates and oil and gas prices.

The visit concluded with a tour of the main conference room and a group photo taken in front of the flags of the OPEC member countries.

 

 

 

Other recent activity carried out by the Austrian member committee included a visit by the Young Energy Professionals (YEP) to the hydroelectric power station at Freudenau, operated by Verbund, on 16 November, which concluded with a YEP programme meeting.

 

"This event supports the aim of the YEP programme to combine theoretical and interdisciplinary project development in various energy-fields with practical experiences in applied energy-production. We thank Dr Allmer’s valuable insights and advice in this regard." said Dr Robert Kobau, Secretary General World Energy Council Austria.

A major discussion dealt with different ways to structure the final step of the programme - the working groups' presentations. The key takeaway was to increase the responsibility of the groups, allowing them to frame their main working group’s presentation event.

Dipl.-Ing. Dr techn, Heinz-Peter Allmer of Verbund Hydro Power, explained the specifics of the power station before giving the group a tour through the facility. The young professionals were amazed by the size of the turbine and astonished to learn that numerous similar power stations are controlled remotely by the team at Freudenau. While all YEPs are experts in their fields, many have not seen a hydro plant before.

The group therefore learned about the of complexities of hydro power and its advantages such as being a steady supply of energy source, as well as the challenges associated with it such as varying water levels.