GDF Chief Sees Better Gas Market

The Chairman and Chief Executive of  GDF Suez sees natural gas prices picking up next year.

In an interview with la Repubblica, Gerard Mestrallet said negative factors affecting the gas price were depressed industrial demand and the impact of the oil price on long-term contracts.

"The discovery of shale gas deposits in the United States, thanks to which it is becoming independent from foreign (imports), has provoked a fall on the spot market," Mestrallet said in the Italian newspaper.

"But demand for gas is growing, above all in Asia, for which I believe, with the start of next year, that there will be a pick up in prices," he said.

GDF Suez recently suffered a setback in when its hopes of investing in shale gas in France were impacted by legislation prohibiting hydraulic fracturing.

"On the development of shale gas, the situation will change from country to country, " said the chairman of the French gas giant.