International Association of Oil and Gas Producers Stakeholder view of EFET R_ISO Proposal Prague – 21 January 2008

______________________________________________________________ 2 Who are OGP? International Association of Oil & Gas Producers: - Exploration and production - 65 companies and associations Members account for more than half of the world‘s oil output + about 1/3 of global gas production Office in London for global affairs since 1974 Office in Brussels for representation towards the EU since 1992 Courtesy of Statoil

______________________________________________________________ 3 OGP Europe Supports: The principle of establishing Regional ISOs as an interim measure leading to establishing a single EU traded gas market The objective of a robust and transparent gas market Measures that facilitate the gas producers being able to invest in, and freely import natural gas into and throughout Europe The proposal to establish single independent energy regulators with harmonised powers Market codes developed, amended and approved by all market participants using established platforms such as EASEE-gas

______________________________________________________________ 4 OGP Europe’s position is that that the lowest price to the consumer will be obtained by stimulating investment along the natural gas chain OGP Europe agrees with EFET that: - Regional ISOs should animate the market and encourage investment - Regional ISOs should have a greater incentive to identify and resolve capacity restrictions - The ultimate aim should be a single grid code - Interim regional grid codes will recognise different levels of market maturity OGP Europe Position

______________________________________________________________ 5 Economic items for consideration The R_ISO proposal should aim to reduce costs to network users: - The basis for cost reduction assumptions needs further clarification - The economic relationship between TSO and the R_ISO needs to demonstrate an overall value add - What is the incentive for the TSOs? - The independence criteria may make the R-ISO uneconomic without adding large additional cost - The R_ISO proposal should reduce interfaces and not make doing business more bureaucratic

______________________________________________________________ 6 Further items for consideration Coordinated investment planning is supported but investment decisions should remain with shareholders Further information is required on the statement that R_ISOs should have control of flows in supplying pipelines The issue of capacity restrictions between R_ISOs is not covered by the proposal

______________________________________________________________ 7 Conclusion The principle of establishing Regional ISOs as an interim measure is supported It must be demonstrated that the proposal will not add significant cost to the EU market The proposal should reduce bureaucratic interfaces Regional ISOs should remove regional differences, not defend them Relationship with regulators should define a transparent process for use to challenge regulators or regional ISOs decisions

8 ______________________________________________ Thank you for your attention!