Opportunities for Australian oil and gas in uncertain global times

Maria van der Hoeven became Executive Director of the IEA on 1 September 2011. Previously, she served as Minister of Economic Affairs of the Netherlands from February 2007 – October 2010, during which time she demonstrated leadership on energy policy at the national, regional and global levels.

As minister, she took the initiative in advancing several key aspects of her country’s energy policy, including unbundling, infrastructure modernisation and extension, developing the Dutch gas hub policy, and accelerating the development and use of renewables. She played an active role in European energy policy development, with a special focus on issues such as market liberalisation and energy security. She promoted the strengthening of regional ties by helping to set up the Pentalateral Forum, which establishes co-operation on electricity between Germany, France and the Benelux countries and which is evolving into a model for other regions of Europe. On the world stage, She contributed to international dialogue about both energy security and sustainability. She participated actively in both the Jeddah and London summits on the future of oil prices, and in 2009 she chaired the IEA ministerial meeting. As the responsible minister of a gas-exporting country that is regarded as Europe’s hub for trade in crude oil and oil products, she gained valuable insights about a broad range of energy-related issues and assembled an extensive international network and numerous ministerial contacts in both OECD and non-OECD countries.

Ms. van der Hoeven is a strong supporter of market principles, promoting transparency and establishing a level playing field. In administrative affairs, she managed to shorten bureaucratic procedures and accelerated large-scale energy investments, including large-scale offshore wind power in the North Sea and the creation of the natural gas hub. It is her personal conviction that energy production and use should be made comprehensively more efficient and cleaner by improving energy efficiency, developing and using renewables, and producing and using energy otherwise generated in the cleanest possible ways, such as clean fossil fuels and carbon capture and storage.