Deloitte were once again delighted to sponsor Flame, the pre-eminent gas conference held in Amsterdam on 22nd to 25th of February 2005. This conference, Europe's largest meeting place for the gas industry, attracted over 600 delegates and numerous, distinguished speakers from a broad range of companies and academia.

The following four themes shaped the event:

• gas supply - assessing the sources of European gas supply
• gas demand - who are the key consumers and expected future developments
• regulation, pricing and liquidity - how is the market working?
• LNG - examining the key issues for LNG

As well as providing many speakers, Deloitte hosted an interactive voting session to gage the audience's views on a number of industry issues.   

This was a well received exercise and produced some insightful results, generating interest by the press. Read our press release: Major industry survey reveals key concerns in gas sector

Our speakers covered a range of topics, from the Russian and CIS gas supply to developments in the Accession countries.  Our IAS, Tax and legal specialists chaired a panel to address the increasing burden of accounting, legal and taxation compliance issues faced by the European gas industry.

The Flame awards, presented by Doug King, Senior Partner at Deloitte and Chairman of Flame 2005, were designed to recognise significant achievements within the industry. They were awarded to the following:

BG Plc - for its success in developing the LNG market and for the successful closing of the Dragon project at Milford Haven in the UK

Gas Natural - for constructive facilitation of the liberalisation of the Spanish gas market

Qatargas II - for the most important gas infrastructure project in 2004

National Grid Transco - for the largest and most innovative transaction in the European gas market with the separation and sale of four of its eight gas distribution networks in Great Britain.

Read our press release: Deloitte announces winners of Industry Excellence Awards at Flame 2005 conference.