Gas, LNG & The Future of Energy 2024

James MacTaggart

Chief Marketing Officer

NextDecade

James MacTaggart is based in Singapore and has over 25 years of experience delivering large and complex deals in the LNG and natural gas industry, working across Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and the United States. He has executed long-term LNG sale and purchase agreements supporting positive final investment decisions on five greenfield LNG projects. Before joining NextDecade, MacTaggart served more than 20 years with Shell in various marketing and trading positions, with his last role as General Manager of Shell’s Gas and LNG Markets business in Asia, India, and the Middle East. During his tenure, he also set up Shell’s gas trading business in India. MacTaggart completed his undergraduate studies in classical and modern Chinese at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London and holds an M.B.A. with distinction from Bayes Business School.

Gavin Law

Head of Gas and Power Consulting

Wood Mackenzie

Gavin’s expertise lies in assisting diverse energy companies to identify risks and opportunities in their business, and supporting them in building strategies to exploit changing market opportunities. Most recently, he has been directing our landmark upstream carbon emissions study, working with the world's leading oil and gas companies to evaluate upstream emissions and impact on future value. In his 24 years at Wood Mackenzie, Gavin has built trusted relationships within the leading gas and LNG companies worldwide. His research background enables him to blend a seasoned operational perspective with insight into the latest market trends and issues. He has played a key role in a wide range of high profile consulting projects and industry events related to the global gas and LNG market. Prior to his current role, Gavin was Head of Global LNG, responsible for both research and consulting. He developed a holistic strategy for LNG business and built relationships with the leading global LNG importers. Gavin began his career at BG Plc and has worked as an independent consultant.

Andrew Walker

Vice President for LNG Strategy and Communication

Cheniere

Dr. Andrew Walker is the Vice President for LNG Strategy and Communication for Cheniere. He is located in London and is responsible for the LNG strategy and market outlook of Cheniere, reporting into the Chief Commercial Officer. Until October 2015 he was Vice President for Global LNG - and prior to that Head of LNG Strategy - at BG Group where he worked for over 20 years before joining Cheniere. During his career in LNG, he has been located in Singapore, Egypt, the USA and UK and has worked on numerous LNG projects including Atlantic LNG in Trinidad and Tobago, Egyptian LNG, and Dragon LNG in the UK. Dr. Walker has a Doctorate in Geology from Imperial College, University of London.

Neil McMahon

Managing Partner

Kimmeridge

Dr McMahon is a Managing Partner at Kimmeridge and is responsible for investments and for developing Kimmeridge’s screening capabilities. Prior to this role, Dr McMahon was a Senior Equity Research Analyst for the Global Integrated Oils at Sanford C. Bernstein, where he was ranked first three times in the Institutional Investor Research Survey. Dr McMahon covered 18 of the largest integrated oils and refiners. He joined Sanford C. Bernstein in 2002. Before joining Sanford C. Bernstein, Dr McMahon was an Engagement Manager at McKinsey, based in both Houston and London, where he had been since 1999. At McKinsey he mainly advised petroleum and electric power and natural gas clients and undertook proprietary research within McKinsey’s industry practices. Prior to McKinsey, Dr McMahon worked in the oil industry as a geoscientist with British Petroleum (BP) and British Gas (BG) before moving into consulting with Arthur D. Little where he became a manager in its Global Energy Practice. Dr McMahon is an advisor and Board observer to Common Energy, a community solar subscription platform and project manager. Dr McMahon received an honors degree from The University of Edinburgh in Geology and Geophysics where he later undertook further research to complete a BP-sponsored Ph.D. in 1995. Dr McMahon has published a number of technical and management-oriented papers in leading oil and gas industry journals.

Dulles Wang

Director, Americas Gas and LNG Research

Wood Mackenzie

As a director on our Americas Gas and LNG Research team, Dulles delivers analysis of all aspects of the natural gas value chain, and explores how changing market dynamics affect gas prices and market opportunities. Dulles’ industry experience spans private and public sectors, starting with natural gas consulting at The Brattle Group, and fuels fundamental analysis and physical gas scheduling at NRG Energy. Prior to joining Wood Mackenzie, he was an energy markets regulator at the Alberta Securities Commission, providing primary regulatory oversight of what is now ICE NGX.

De la Rey Venter

Chief Executive Officer

MidOcean Energy

Mr. Venter is the CEO of MidOcean Energy, EIG’s LNG focused investment vehicle. He joined EIG in 2022 after 20 years with Shell where he was, amongst other roles, the Global Head of LNG and a member of the leadership teams of Shell’s Upstream and Integrated Gas and New Energies directorates. He started his career in the mining industry with a variety of strategies, sales, marketing and distribution roles with Samancor and Billiton. Over the course of his career the Venter family has lived in South Africa, the Netherlands, the UK, Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and the USA. Mr. Venter holds a Bachelor's degree in Finance and Accounting from the Northwest University in South Africa, an Honours Degree in Investment Management from the University of Johannesburg and an MBA from the Institute for Management Development (IMD) in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Ixchel Castro

Vice President, Head of Gas and LNG Markets

Wood Mackenzie

Ixchel leads our research on downstream markets in North and Latin America. She is responsible for engaging with clients in the region with a specific focus on refined product markets, balances and prices. She also develops the exports and pricing forecast for Latin American crude. Ixchel joined Wood Mackenzie in 2012, covering Latin America for the Energy Markets team in our Houston office. She also worked in Paris, covering Southern European markets as part of the Gas & Power team. In 2016, she joined the Oils team to lead the research practice in Mexico City, with a focus on downstream and midstream analysis for Latin America. Before joining Wood Mackenzie, Ixchel worked at PMI, International Trading (Pemex) in crude trading and refined product analysis. Earlier in her career she also worked in the energy division of the World Bank, undertaking research on power interconnections in South America.

Kateryna Filippenko

Research Director, Global Gas Markets

Wood Mackenzie

Kateryna joined Wood Mackenzie's upstream research team in 2012 and moved to the global gas and LNG team in 2019. Her focus is on the European gas market and the development of alternative scenarios. Kateryna has considerable research and consulting experience in European gas. She regularly meets with oil and gas producers, service companies, banks and other actors to discuss industry developments. Kateryna frequently takes part in client briefings on key topics.

Massimo Di Odoardo

Vice President, Gas and LNG Research

Wood Mackenzie

Massimo brings extensive knowledge of the entire gas industry value chain to his current position as Vice President of Gas and LNG Research. Massimo joined Wood Mackenzie in 2007 as a consultant, where he advised NOCs, IOCs and European utilities on global gas and pricing dynamics. He later transitioned to the research division, where he soon became the content lead for European gas and then for global gas and LNG, responsible for articulating our view on market fundamentals, pricing dynamics and corporate developments. Before joining Wood Mackenzie, Massimo worked in the strategy department at Eni SpA, where he was responsible for developing global gas scenario analyses to support strategic investments. Massimo speaks regularly at conferences and with media, and remains deeply engaged with the industry. Travelling to see and discuss market dynamics with customers is at the heart of his job, enabling him to constantly challenge and evolve his own view of the global gas and LNG market.

Valerie Purvis

Executive Vice President, Head of Commodities

Wood Mackenzie

Valerie Purvis leads the Chemicals, Metals and Mining, Oils, Gas and LNG divisions at Wood Mackenzie. Val’s teams provide customers with unique data and insight that drives smarter, more strategic decision-making. She builds and strengthens customer relationships, enhancing Wood Mackenzie’s reputation as a leader and trusted partner in the natural resources industry. Val joined the Chemicals division in 2016 to lead the integration of Wood Mackenzie’s acquisition of PCI – a consortium of five specialist chemicals companies. Under her leadership, the combined division has begun generating profits and shown a compounded annual growth rate of 15% over four years. Since then, Val has expanded her leadership remit to other commodity divisions of the business. Her first position with Wood Mackenzie was leading a team of Upstream energy analysts, focusing on exploration and production in the Gulf of Mexico. She went on to lead multiple teams at the company in Russia and the Caspian Sea. Prior to joining Wood Mackenzie, Val was a geophysicist in the upstream oil and gas industry. She gained experience working in numerous offshore locations, with a focus on Nigeria and the South China Sea. In addition to her primary roles, Val is the executive sponsor of the sustainability initiative at Wood Mackenzie. Val holds a BSc with Honours in Geoscience from the University of St. Andrews.

Kristy Kramer

Vice President, Head of Gas and LNG Consulting

Wood Mackenzie

Kristy brings over fifteen years of gas and energy industry experience to her current role leading Wood Mackenzie’s Gas and LNG Consulting Practice. Kristy joined our consulting practice in 2016, working with clients to evaluate investment opportunities, design portfolio strategies and support project financing. She later transitioned to lead a global gas and LNG research team, delivering fundamental supply, demand and pricing analysis across global and regional gas markets, before returning to consulting. In her time at Wood Mackenzie, Kristy has worked with a wide range of clients through the gas and LNG value chain and across the globe. Earlier in her career, Kristy spent eight years at ExxonMobil, where she held a number of roles with responsibilities including leading deal evaluation and developing portfolio strategies for both proprietary gas and joint venture LNG assets.

Mangesh Patankar

VP. Gas and LNG Consulting

Wood Mackenzie

Mangesh has 18 years of experience in the gas/LNG industry, with a mix of Consulting and Industry background. Mangesh rejoined Wood Mackenzie in Nov 2017, having previously worked with the company for 7 years during 2009-15. During his tenure with Wood Mackenzie, he has been involved in due diligence on gas/LNG & power assets, LNG procurement engagements for Asian buyers, Lenders’ Market Advisory for LNG liquefaction and regas projects, economic modelling & financial feasibility studies for gas/LNG assets, gas monetisation strategies in Asia and Middle East regions. During 2016-17, he worked in another consulting firm and was involved in conceptualising small scale Floating Regas terminal projects in India and Philippines. Prior to joining Wood Mackenzie in 2009, he was with Shell’s LNG team in India for ~3 years as business analyst covering the Indian gas market. Prior to that, he worked for CRISIL Infrastructure Advisory (A Standard & Poor’s company) in India as Manager – Fuels Practice. Mangesh holds an MBA in Oil and Gas from University of Petroleum and Energy Studies, India and is a certified Energy Risk Professional (ERP) from Global Association of Risk Professionals (GARP). He is an Associate Chartered Accountant from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and has also cleared the examination conducted by the Institute of Costs & Works Accountants of India.

Jaclyn Presnal

Vice President, New Energy Ventures

The Williams Companies

Jaclyn leads the Williams New Energy Ventures team focused on commercializing innovative technologies, markets and business models, while also collaborating across Williams to evaluate and implement projects to grow our clean energy business. Jaclyn joined Williams in December of 2004, most recently serving as Director of Strategic Development, where she successfully led the recent acquisitions of MountainWest, Rocky Mountain Midstream and Cureton Midstream. She has proven herself to be a strong leader of complex functions, serving in roles in market intelligence, strategic planning, project analysis, FP&A, and continuous improvement. Jaclyn was a member of the inaugural Diversity & Inclusion Council from 2019 until 2022. Jaclyn earned a bachelor’s degree in finance from the University of Tulsa and later earned a Master’s in Business Administration from University of Tulsa. Jaclyn is also a certified Lean Six Sigma Green Belt.

Fraser Carson

Senior Research Analyst, Global LNG

Wood Mackenzie

Fraser has extensive research and project management experience across the LNG value chain. He leads Wood Mackenzie’s research of LNG shipping assets, leveraging our unrivalled global LNG data to produce considered and independent analysis of LNG shipping markets, costs and trade. He is also a specialist in LNG asset valuations and project economics for the EMEA region and has participated in a wide range of consulting projects, including new business development, market advisory, opportunity screenings and cost benchmarking. In addition to his LNG asset responsibilities, Fraser is heavily involved in modelling Wood Mackenzie’s bi-annual, long-term global gas forecasts, taking primary ownerships of the global LNG view within each outlook. Fraser joined Wood Mackenzie in October 2018 and is based in Spain. He previously worked in corporate finance and restructuring for the Royal Bank of Scotland (now NatWest Group), based in Edinburgh.

Jostein Ueland

Group CFO

Deutsche Regas

Sandeep Kumar Gupta

Chairman and Managing Director

GAIL (India)

Mr. Sandeep Kumar Gupta is CMD of GAIL (India) Limited, India’s leading natural gas company with diversified interests across the natural gas value chain of trading, transmission, LPG production & transmission, LNG re-gasification, petrochemicals, city gas, E&P, etc. He has wide experience of over 35 years in the Oil & Gas Industry. Before joining GAIL in October 2022, Mr. Gupta held the position of Director (Finance) since August 2019 on the Board of Indian Oil Corporation Limited. As Director (Finance), he was in charge of F&A, Treasury, Pricing, International Trade, Optimization, Information Systems, Corporate Affairs, Legal, Risk Management, etc. Mr. Sandeep Kumar Gupta is also the Chairman of Mahanagar Gas Limited, Brahmaputra Cracker and Polymer Limited (BCPL), GAIL Gas Limited and also on the Board of Petronet LNG Limited. Mr. Gupta is also Chairman of Standing Conference of Public Enterprises (SCOPE), an apex professional organization representing the Central Government Public Enterprises. Mr. Gupta is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and has received prestigious individual recognition such as “CA CFO – Large Corporate – Manufacturing and Infrastructure Category” in January 2021 by ICAI, adjudged among Top 30 CFOs in India by StartupLanes.com in May 2022, Best CEO – Oil & Gas Sector 2022-23 by India Today in April 2023 and “CEO with HR Orientation” Award by World HRD Congress in February 2024.

Neil Somma

Executive Director - Energy Products

CME Group

Charlotte Raggett

President

Rockies LNG

Ms. Raggett is the President & CEO of Rockies LNG Partners and has been working with Rockies since 2018, initially as the Chief Commercial Officer and now as President & CEO. Rockies LNG is a partnership of Canadian natural gas producers working together to develop LNG export opportunities for Canadian natural gas. Prior to joining Rockies LNG, Ms. Raggett worked at various upstream and midstream companies including 5 years at Seven Generations Energy as Vice President of Market Development and 10 years at Aux Sable as the Vice President, Supply & Marketing and Chief Commercial Officer. Her career assignments have included business development, marketing, logistics, economic analysis, commercial operations and commodity trading. She has over 30 years of energy industry experience at companies including Williams Energy Canada, Inter Pipeline, TransCanada Midstream, Dow Chemical Canada, and the Canadian Energy Research Institute. Ms. Raggett earned a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Mathematics from Queen’s University and a Master of Arts in Economics from the University of Calgary. She is currently the Registrar for the Calgary Highland Dancing Association and has served as the president of the Economics Society of Calgary and on the board of the Industrial Gas Consumers Association of Alberta, in addition to various not-for-profit boards.

Andrew Pearson

Senior Vice President, Head of Gas & LNG

Wood Mackenzie

Andrew is the Head of our Gas & LNG business and is responsible for its strategic direction and operational success. He has lived and worked in Europe and the US operating in various leadership roles across the gas, power and renewables, coal and oil markets. He first joined Wood Mackenzie in 2001 and was initially in our Middle East Upstream Research team, before moving into the Commodities business in 2005 to establish our LNG research offerings. Prior to joining Wood Mackenzie, Andrew worked as a geologist in the North Sea. Andrew holds a MSc from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne and a BSc (Hons) from the University of Aberdeen.

Steve Brann

Head of LNG Origination

Vitol

Steve is Head of LNG Origination at Vitol.  Previously he was Managing Director of Vitol Dubai Limited.   Since joining the firm in 2007, Mr. Brann has served as a member of Vitol’s investment and origination teams, with a focus on Gas and Power solutions across EMEA and the Asian subcontinent. Mr. Brann graduated from Harvard with High Honours and with Distinction from London Business School.

Arief Handoko

President Director

PT Perusahaan Gas Negara Tbk

•Expert Adviser PT Medco Energi •Deputy for Finance and Monetization of SKKMIGAS •Secretary of SKKMIGAS •Vice President of Supply Chain Management & General Services at ConocoPhillips Ind. •Senior Manager Audit & Ethics •Manager Audit on ConocoPhillips Indonesia. •Petroleum Industry (upstream & downstream) Audit Manager (third echelon at BPK-RI) •Cost Recovery analyst together with former Chairman of SKKMIGAS •Non Performing Loan (NPL) Analyst in Banking Industry at BPK-RI •Airline Industry Consultant and Auditors at BPK-RI •Telecommunication Industry Auditors •IT Auditors and IT Audit Lecturer •Speaker of several seminars

Eric McGuire

Director of Natural Gas and LNG Analytics

Wood Mackenzie

Eric is a Director of Research, overseeing Wood Mackenzie’s North America S&D team. He has 18 years of natural gas market experience with time spent working for both BP and PetroChina where he focused on analytics and trading across North American markets, global gas markets, and LNG. Before joining Wood Mackenzie, he served as the General Manager of Natural Gas and LNG trading for PetroChina International America.

Simon Flowers

Chairman and Chief Analyst

Wood Mackenzie

Simon has a long history with Wood Mackenzie. He first joined the company in 1983, as a North-West Europe upstream analyst, later moving to Sydney to become an equity analyst covering the Australian oil, gas and mining sectors. On returning to the UK in 1992, Simon was a No.1 ranked oil analyst with NatWest Markets after which he took on the role of MD and Head of Pan European Utilities Research with Bank of America Merrill Lynch. There he worked with the boards of many utility companies and was involved in most of the major European privatisations, including Enel, EdF and GdF. Simon re-joined Wood Mackenzie in 2010, bringing with him more than 20 years of experience across a breadth of commodities and sectors including oil and gas, utilities and mining. His experience makes him uniquely qualified to occupy the role of Chief Analyst and Chairman, which sees him produce high-value content and thematic research. Simon’s views on the issues shaping the energy world are regularly sought by industry leaders as well as international media.

Frank Harris

Head of Global LNG Consulting

Wood Mackenzie

Frank leads our LNG consulting practice worldwide; he brings almost 25 years of expertise in strategy development and market analysis together with profound knowledge and understanding of the global business. A recognised expert on the global LNG industry, Frank has worked with many leading utilities and midstream and downstream gas companies on market positioning, trends and forecasting as well as project development. He has also advised upstream clients on developing integrated gas strategies. For National Oil Companies, Frank has worked on gas monetisation strategies, with particular focus on LNG project development; he has supported multiple LNG facility financing projects. Frank has considerable knowledge of advising on the procurement and sale of LNG and is a founder of our LNG Service. Early in his career, he worked for Andersen Consulting’s utilities team on energy market liberalisation. He is familiar with gas markets across Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Australasia and the Americas.

Lucy Cullen

Research Director, EMEA Gas & LNG Research

Wood Mackenzie

Lucy is a principal analyst in Wood Mackenzie’s Asia Pacific Gas & LNG team, primarily focused on supply, demand, contract and price analysis for the Northeast Asian markets. Lucy joined the team in Singapore in 2019, having spent over six years with Wood Mackenzie research in the UK. Lucy was part of the global gas research team in the UK with responsibility for developing European gas supply analysis. Lucy joined Wood Mackenzie in 2012 as an intern in the Energy Markets research team, producing long-term energy balances by looking at inter-fuel competition and energy demand drivers. Lucy has also worked on a number of consulting projects in the areas of gas monetisation, market entry and opportunity screenings and cost analysis in Europe, North Africa and the Caspian.

Gavin Thompson

Vice Chairman for Europe, Middle East and Africa.

Wood Mackenzie

Gavin works as Vice Chairman for Europe, Middle East and Africa. Gavin joined Wood Mackenzie in 1997, managing the company's Asia Pacific Energy Markets team from 2000 - 2003. Between 2003-2014 Gavin was based in Beijing managing Wood Mackenzie's China Business and leading the company's energy research on China. Gavin relocated to Wood Mackenzie's Tokyo office in 2014 to head the Northeast research business. In January 2017 he took up the position of Head of Asia Pacific Research, based in Singapore with a team of over 100 analysts. In early 2019 he was appointed vice chairman for Wood Mackenzie's Asia Pacific business in 2003 before relocating to London for his current role.

Valentina Kretzschmar

Vice President Consulting, Climate Risk and Strategy

Wood Mackenzie

Dr Valentina Kretzschmar has over 25 years of experience in the energy sector. She is a senior expert, with a focus on corporate energy transition strategies and climate reporting. She joined Wood Mackenzie’s Consulting team in June 2023 from Capricorn Energy, where she served as Energy Transition Director, responsible for the company’s climate change and energy transition strategy and reporting. Before Capricorn, Valentina spent 18 years at Wood Mackenzie across Corporate, Upstream Russia and Caspian and Coal Research teams. As Vice President of Corporate Research, she led the development of Corporate New Energy Research. She is an Advisory Board Member at CausewayGT – a geothermal company. She also held a non-executive director role on the board of NHST Global Media (Norway).

Giles Farrer

Vice President Research, Commodities, Gas & LNG

Wood Mackenzie

Giles heads our LNG and gas asset research team and manages our market-leading LNG Service & Tool and LNG Corporate Service. He has nearly twenty years of experience in the energy industry, with the last fifteen focused on gas and LNG. He has built a deep understanding of all commercial aspects of the industry including supply, asset valuation, shipping, demand, contracts and gas infrastructure. As part of his role, Giles provides expert insight, advice and data on the LNG market to customers around the world, and provides support to our global gas service, tool and model products. When he first joined Wood Mackenzie, Giles worked in our upstream group covering the Middle East and South Asia. He previously worked for Evaluate Energy in London.