荷兰GasTerra能源公司

荷兰GasTerra能源公司（GasTerra）——2007年《财富》全球500强排名第300位

荷兰GasTerra能源公司网站: www.gasterra.nl/ 英文

　　荷兰GasTerra能源公司是一家国际化的天然气能源贸易企业，总部位于荷兰，以荷兰为基地在整个欧洲能源市场运营，满足荷兰国内绝大部分的能源需求。GasTerra出口天然气到欧洲的其他六个国家，以总量来计算，它也是欧洲第二大天然气供应商，并提供天然气相关的服务。应荷兰政府对小天然气田开发的法规要求，GasTerra也制定了措施进行小天然气田的开采。

　　2006年9月1日，GasTerra B.V.是新的公司名称，而以前的名称“Gasunie Trade & Supply B.V.”已经失效。

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　　GasTerra is an international company trading in natural gas. It operates on the European energy market and has a significant share of the Dutch gas market. It also provides gas-related services. The company has a strong purchasing position and has over 40 years’ experience in purchasing and selling natural gas.

　　GasTerra fulfils a public role regarding the implementation of the ‘small fields policy’. The aim of this policy is to encourage the production of Dutch natural gas from the smaller gas fields.

　　GasTerra is customer-focused and strives to maintain long-term relationships with market players and to put in place sales contracts which express the market value of the natural gas.

　　GasTerra is committed to sustainable development as a guiding principle for its strategy and actions. The economic and social value of natural gas as a source of energy gives the company an important role in utilising the domestic gas reserves and in energy supply in the Netherlands and the EU. GasTerra promotes the safe and efficient consumption of natural gas and takes active steps to seek further applications. The company recognises the great importance of energy transition to sustainable energy supplies and initiates projects in that context.

　　Our actions are based on our code of conduct, the cornerstones of which are integrity and respect.

　　New name

　　GasTerra B.V. is the new company name from 1 September 2006. As a result, the previous name, Gasunie Trade & Supply B.V., has lapsed. It is the final element in the move, put in place at an earlier stage, to divide Gasunie into a trading company (GasTerra) and an infrastructure company (Gasunie).

　　GasTerra is a private company with limited liability. The shareholders’ structure has remained the same as that of Gasunie Trade & Supply (State 10%, Energie Beheer Nederland 40%, Shell Nederland BV and Esso Nederland BV each 25%).

　　History of GasTerra

　　When in 1959 the Nederlandse Aardolie Maatschappij (Dutch Petroleum Company; NAM) discovered a series of natural gas fields in Groningen, no-one could have predicted the far-reaching significance of this find. Oil and coal were then the most popular fuels. Nuclear energy was only just emerging as a new energy source - a controversial product produced by modern, advanced technological thinking. At the time, natural gas was mainly used locally in the form of mine gas or town gas. There were few ecological concerns then, and environmental protection was not high on the public agenda. In those days, the word ‘climate’ was merely a way of describing the weather.

　　However, by the 1960s, the significance of the find was gradually being appreciated in government circles. The natural gas reserves under Slochteren extended across the entire eastern part of the province, so that from a geological viewpoint, the term ‘Groningen field’ is a more accurate name. In fact, the Groningen field turned out to be what was then the world’s biggest undiscovered gas reserves, with a capacity of nearly 3,000 billion m3.

　　The year 1963 marked the establishment of N.V. Nederlandse Gasunie as the sales organisation for Dutch gas. The necessary infrastructure was built in record time, and within the space of a decade gas was being supplied to as much as three-quarters of the country. Oil and coal were now no longer the fuels of choice for homes and offices. Within approximately 20 years the gas transmission grid had covered the whole of the Netherlands. Gas would eventually provide hot water and central heating for 98% of Dutch homes, as well as supplying most of the country’s industrial consumers. Over 50% of the electricity produced in the Netherlands was now generated by gas-fired power stations.

　　During that same initial ten-year period, the foundations were laid for the growth of gas consumption throughout Europe. Export contracts were signed with Germany, Belgium, France, Switzerland and Italy. These international sales were a prelude to the development of a fully-fledged European gas market. It would be no exaggeration to say that Dutch gas set this market in motion.

　　Initially, two important aspects were not given the importance they acquired in subsequent years: the economic value and the environmental benefits of gas. However, during the 1970s, both these aspects came very clearly to the fore. The first oil crisis in 1973, followed by a second in 1979, raised energy prices (beginning with oil) to unprecedented highs. At the time, the price of Dutch gas was linked to the price of alternative fuels such as fuel oil and domestic fuel oil, and it therefore also rose sharply during that period. The profits from natural gas became a byword in the Netherlands and provided a substantial share of the revenue for successive state budgets.

　　Reports published by the Club of Rome in 1972 expressing serious concerns about worsening pollution and the load placed on the environment heralded the arrival of the ecologically conscious age. This altered the approach to energy consumption, leading to a greater focus on carbon emissions and questions about how to conserve and reduce energy consumption. Among what had by now come to be known as conventional fossil fuels - coal, oil and gas - natural gas now emerged as the most relatively eco-friendly. This not only gave the Netherlands an important source of energy and income, but also a major environmental advantage.

　　Those benefits still apply, and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. They are: the economic significance of gas in the form of revenue for the Dutch state, its likely environmental benefits during the emerging transitional period and the strategic advantage of gas in giving the Netherlands its own energy reserves.