[en] The energy supply in Spain is dominated by oil, coal and nuclear energy. However, natural gas is sweeping the market. In 1995, gas consumption rose as much as 15%. By the year 2000 12% of the energy demand in Spain will be met by natural gas, and a stunning 25% by the year 2006. There is hardly any interest in a deregulated market. Top priority is given to the development of the home market, requiring expansion of the infrastructure and supply capacity

[en] The prospects for natural gas vehicles (NGV) are good. The number of trucks, busses and passenger cars that run on natural gas has considerably increased over the last few years. Natural gas is applauded from various sides as the most important alternative engine fuel. Some prestigious automobile manufacturers have meanwhile included NGV in their price list. However, it's up to the authorities and the gas industry itself in particular to make or break the success of NGV. The maximum range of 300 km is still too limited as is the number of natural gas filling stations in most countries. And without financial impetus NGV will not be able to compete with petrol- and diesel-fueled cars. Yet, clean natural gas vehicles appear to realize a market share of 1% soon

[en] Everywhere in the world plans are being made to stimulate the natural gas industry in developing countries. High investment costs are the biggest problem almost everywhere. Even countries with a closed economy realize that they do not get far without foreign capital. Cases are presented for Africa, Pakistan, and Indonesia

[en] The Dutch energy sector will have to deal with competition from the energy sectors in other European countries, due to liberalization of the European market. In a series of articles on the energy sector abroad, the developments and situation in other European countries than the Netherlands will be outlined. In this third part attention will be paid to the situation in Germany where about 30 gas transportation companies are and hundreds of regional distribution companies and more than 500 local so-called 'Stadtwerke'. With respect to the gas transportation companies Germany is the most liberalized energy sector in Europe. However, the regional and local gas businesses are very persistent in maintaining their concessions

[en] In a series of articles, a close look is taken at some foreign newcomers on the Dutch energy market. The eighth article features the largest power generating company in Norway: Statkraft

[en] In four articles a first overview is given of the consequences for the Dutch natural gas industry of the liberalization of the natural gas market in Europe. In the first article attention is paid to the consequences for the organization and operation of the natural gas sector. In article 2 some (new and mainly financial) services that can be offered by natural gas trading companies in a liberalized market are discussed. In the third article technical consequences for the organization and management of the natural gas distribution system are outlined, while in article 4 the subject is the development of an open standard for gas meters

[en] Based on financial data, published in the 1999 annual report, a brief overview is given of the consequences of the liberalization of the market for natural gas in Europe for the Dutch natural gas trading company Gasunie

[en] Automation offers great opportunities in the efforts of energy utilities in the Netherlands to reorganize towards more customer-oriented businesses. However, automation in itself is not enough. First, the organizational structure has to be changed considerably. Various energy utilities have already started on it. The restructuring principle is the same everywhere, but the way it is implemented differs widely. In this article attention is paid to different customer information systems. These systems can put an end to the so-called island culture within the energy utility organizations. The systems discussed are IRD of Systema and RIVA of SAP (both German software businesses), and two Dutch systems: Numis-2000 of Multihouse and KIS/400 of NUON Info-Systemen

[en] At the moment the use telemetering, i.e. remote recording of natural gas, water and electricity consumption at small-scaled consumers, is more expensive than the use of human meter readers. There are, however, some advantages to this modern technique, allowing the meters to be read far more frequently than once a year at virtually the same cost, such as steering of energy consumption and alarm functions. It is expected that telemetering systems for small-scaled consumers will not be applied widely before the year 2000. 2 figs., 12 ills

[en] The position of natural gas vehicles (NGV) is improving. Although there are no real breakthroughs yet, recently there have been some promising developments, in particular with regard to light-duty vehicles. More important, however, is the growing awareness of the automobile industry of the use of natural gas as an automotive fuel to improve the urban air quality. Apart from the production of dedicated NGV there is room for improvement in the field of conversion, and the major technological and financial obstacles