E.ON Looks Towards LNG

E.ON AG. is targeting opportunities in natural gas production, liquefaction and shipping to benefit from increasing LNG demand.

Germany’s biggest power utility likes gas because it can be increasingly shipped anywhere in the world where it can fetch the best price, said Jorgen Kildahl, E.ON’s management-board member responsible for generation and trading.

“Looking at the gas market as a global commodity I think is very interesting,” Kildahl said. “We already see now how huge volumes of energy are moved around the globe. I see no reason why that should not continue.”

The company is looking beyond its traditional base as utilities face losses from Germany’s decision to switch off its nuclear reactors by 2022.

Investments in alternatives including coal for baseload power and renewables are hampered by rules that change frequently and sometimes contradict each other from one country to the next, Kildahl said.

“It’s not straightforward building coal in Germany,” he said. “If you can’t build coal, you can’t build new grid. You can’t do onshore wind. We would just like to know what we can do.”

Governments have introduced incentives to promote spending on alternative energy only to roll them back when the burden on consumers becomes too heavy.

Source: Bloomberg