A new edition of the Latin America Energy Forum (LAEF) was held from March 16 to 18 in Washington DC, United States, with the theme “Capital flow underpinning the energy transition”.

On this occasion, ARPEL participated in three panels: "The role of gas in the energy transition", "From NOCs (National Oil Companies) to NECs (National Energy Companies)", and "The next round of transformative gas projects".

Carlos Garibaldi, Executive Secretary of ARPEL, was part of the panel on the role of gas together with Stuart Young, Minister of Energy and Energy Industries, Trinidad and Tobago; Heloisa Borges, Director of Gas, EPE; Brian Butcher, Senior Policy Advocacy Advisor, Gases - Americas of Shell, and Terence Thorn, Senior Advisor to the President of the IGU.

Garibaldi was also a speaker in the session entitled "From NOCs to NECs", in which he was accompanied by Sebastián Castañeda, Corporate Manager of Financial Planning and Performance, Ecopetrol, and Neeraj Nandurdikar, Senior VP, Global Head of Power & Renewables Consulting and Head of Americas Consulting at Wood Mackenzie.

Pablo Ferragut, Managing Director of ARPEL, participated in the plenary session "The next round of transformative gas projects", which was chaired by Mauricio Roitman, Energy Consultant, Former Chairman of Enargas.

Other speakers at the session were Heloisa Borges, Head of Gas of EPE; Juan Pareja, LNG Business Development of Shell, and Chris McCormick, Chief Investment Officer of the Geothermal Development Fund for Latin America (GDFLA).

One of the main conclusions drawn is that Latin America is a very heterogeneous region, and therefore energy transitions are very particular and specific to each country.

It was mentioned that natural gas offers great opportunities for the region, which is rich in natural resources that can contribute both to decarbonization and economic development.

It was also pointed out that national oil companies own a high proportion of the resources and production, and therefore play a fundamental role in the energy transition.

Finally, it was noted that some oil and gas companies have made great progress towards decarbonization, even making commitments to be net-zero by 2050. In this context, diversification towards energy companies is a shift that takes place naturally.