"World Energy Outlook 2008 draws on the experience of another turbulent year in energy markets to provide new energy projections to 2030, region by region and fuel by fuel, incorporating the latest data and policies. "

The World Energy Outlook series is a leading source of strategic insight on the future of energy and energy-related emissions, providing detailed scenarios that map out the consequences of different energy policy and investment choices. This year's edition updates the outlooks for all fuels, technologies and regions, based on the latest market data, policy initiatives and cost trends. In addition, the 2019 report tackles some key questions in depth: (i) What do the shale revolution, the rise of liquefied natural gas, the falling costs of renewables and the spread of digital technologies mean for tomorrow's energy supply?; (ii) How can the world get on a pathway to meet global climate targets and other sustainable energy goals?; (iii) What are the energy choices that will shape Africa's future, and how might the rise of the African consumer affect global trends?; (iv) How large a role could offshore wind play in the transformation of the energy sector?; (v) Could the world's gas grids one day deliver low-carbon energy?

The precipitous fall in oil prices, continued geopolitical instability and the ongoing global climate negotiations are witness to the dynamic nature of energy markets. In a time of so much uncertainty, understanding the implications of the shifting energy landscape for economic and environmental goals and for energy security is vital. The World Energy Outlook 2015 (WEO-2015) will present updated projections for the evolution of the global energy system to 2040, based on the latest data and market developments, as well as detailed insights on the prospects for fossil fuels, renewables, the power sector and energy efficiency and analysis on trends in CO2 emissions and fossil-fuel and renewable energy subsidies.

This book is a product of investigations conducted within the Global Utility Research Unit (Guru) of Agici Corporate Finance (Milan, Italy). More specifically, it is the result of a project developed by the Observatory on Alliances and Strategies in the Pan-European Utility Market set-up seven years ago with the contribution of Accenture. The project, entitled “Pan-European Gas Industry Scenario – Truth and Lies”, was presented at the 2008 Milan annual international conference (www. agici. it). I would therefore like to thank Luca Cesari, Claudio Arcudi and Massimo Pagella from Accenture for their continued support. The scope of this book is to shed some light on a market, that of natural gas, which is highly complex and at the same time of fundamental importance for Europe for at least the next 20 years. We do not intend to build a theory but only to develop a better understanding of the key factors. We fully recognise that the each of the issues we cover deserves further investigation and we are also well aware that we may have omitted a number of important considerations and topics. These shortcomings are - at least in part - justified by the desire to keep the book to a r- sonable size for editorial reasons.