Industry
Gas Business Understanding
Get a "big picture" perspective of the dynamic and fast-paced natural gas industry
In this interactive two-day seminar you will gain a comprehensive understanding of the business of natural gas, how you and your company fit into the big picture and trends that will change the industry as you progress in your career. If you are new to the gas industry, or even a veteran wanting more details on how all the pieces fit together, Gas Business Understanding will help you connect the dots to make sense out of this dynamic industry.
You will learn about the various types of customers and how their needs are served, sources of natural gas, the physical system and how it's operated, why and how the industry is regulated and how restructuring of the industry has affected the marketplace, what types of risks energy companies encounter and how they mitigate them, how natural gas markets work and prices are set, and much more.
This course was designed with your participation in mind! Questions and discussion among attendees are highly encouraged. And you will participate in a number of individual and group exercises that will give you a real-world perspective of the business of natural gas. You will leave this information-packed seminar with relevant and current information that can be applied immediately to your work!
Prerequisites: No prerequisites or advance preparation is required.
Contact us at 866-765-5432 or 'info' for more information.
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Washington, DC
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12/3/2012-12/4/2012
The Dupont Circle Hotel
1500 New Hampshire Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20036
202-483-6000
$1390 $1190
(discount expires 11/12/2012)
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Is Gas Business Understanding the right seminar for me?
If a big picture perspective of the natural gas business could help you succeed in your job, this seminar is for you! Whether you're new on the job or an industry veteran, you will benefit from the comprehensive industry overview you will receive. While anyone with a connection to the gas business should consider this fundamental seminar, here are the types of employees who have found this class helpful to their continued success in the industry:
- New hires: anyone new to the industry, whether you are working for a utility, gas marketing company, pipeline, production company, startup, or any company providing services to the industry
- Employees with industry experience in one or two specific departments who are now moving into management
- Technical employees such as system operators, engineers and Information Technology professionals who need to understand how the business of natural gas actually works
- Technical employees who are moving into positions that support business or regulatory strategies
- Regulatory employees who need to understand the real-world challenges of gas market participants
- Accounting professionals who need a solid foundation in how the gas business works
- Professionals such as attorneys, finance, PR, communications, etc. who are working for an industry participant or providing services to the energy industry
- Virtually any industry employee with limited experience on the business side of the industry
How will Gas Business Understanding help me?
If you are new to the natural gas business, this seminar will help you gain a big picture perspective of the industry you’ve just joined. The gas industry is unlike any other industry you may have experienced in the past. The business acumen you will receive in this class will help you to make sense of it all. And that broad foundation of knowledge will help you to become a more active and productive participant of your company’s team. Many participants tell us that what they learned in two days could have taken years in on-the-job training! Think of this class as a big jump-start to your career in the gas business.
If you are an industry veteran, you probably know that it’s common for employees to gain expertise in their area of work (accounting is a great example), yet after years on the job have very little idea how what they do affects the company outside their department, how their actions affect their company’s regulatory strategies, or how their decisions affect customers and other market participants. Gas Business Understanding was designed to not only provide the big picture perspective you are missing, but also to help you understand how what you do affects the rest of the business and give you the overall knowledge needed to interact effectively with various stakeholders. Whether it’s getting a grip on industry acronyms, understanding how gas transactions are scheduled or finally understanding how a gas utility or pipeline makes money, this knowledge will make you more successful in communicating with others in your company and prepare you for further career advancement.
In just two information-packed days, this dynamic course will provide you with a solid understanding of:
- A big picture perspective of how the gas business operates
- The various types of gas customers, how they use gas, their specific needs, and how services are designed to meet them
- North American supply basins, imported pipeline gas, and Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG)
- How natural gas is discovered, produced, gathered, and processed.
- How gas travels through the transmission and distribution systems to a customer site
- How gas is stored
- How transmission and distribution systems are operated and scheduled
- Which segments of the industry are regulated and why, and how the regulatory process really works
- How utility and pipeline rates are determined and how the rate case process affects the profitability of utilities, their customers, and other market participants
- How gas restructuring has changed the business and what to look for in the future
- Who the key industry participants are and the strategies they employ to be successful
- How physical and financial strategies are used to make money and manage risk
- The key forces likely to drive future evolution in the natural gas business
Overview of Natural Gas in Our Society
- What is natural gas and how does it work?
- Why is natural gas so important to our society?
- How gas is consumed
- Gas units and additional concepts that you need to know
Customers
- The number of customers and their usage broken down by 4 primary gas customer classes
- How the Residential, Commercial and Industrial classes use gas
- How customer demand is forecast in the short term and the long term
- Annual load shapes and why this is so important to understand
- Bundled and unbundled procurement options
- Typical rate structures in the regulated market
- Ways to serve customer needs
The Physical System and Delivery Chain
- Sources of U.S. gas supply (domestic, imports by pipeline, LNG)
- North American basins and production/reserves
- A big picture look at the natural gas physical system
- Exploration fundamentals
- Production fundamentals
- How gas is processed
- LNG (what it is, how it works, why it’s valuable, existing and proposed U.S. facilities, pricing)
- The U.S. transmission pipeline network
- Storage (regional capacities and locations of storage fields)
- Market hubs
- Transportation fundamentals (packing, drafting, using storage)
- Gas distribution fundamentals
Regulation and Deregulation
- Evolution of regulation and markets over time (regulation, deregulation, commoditization, value-added services)
- What does natural gas regulation do and why regulate the industry?
- Who regulates what
- The federal and state regulatory compacts
- 4 types of regulatory proceedings
- The 8 steps in the regulatory process and what happens during each step
- How cost-of-service based rates are set: authorized rates of return, determining the rate base, determining the revenue requirement, forecasting usage, determining cost allocations, calculating rates
- Balancing accounts
- Decoupling
- Incentive ratemaking
- When are market-based rates used?
- What is restructuring (deregulation) and why?
- Issues with deregulation
- Gas supply choice in the U.S. (by customer group)
Gas Markets
- Participants in the delivery chain (upstream, midstream, downstream)
- Natural gas supply market structure
- Top producers, pipelines, marketers, and LDCs
- Electronic exchanges
- U.S. gas demand and demand drivers
- U.S. gas production (rig counts, supply areas)
- Gas imports (pipeline, Canadian, LNG)
- U.S. supply vs. demand
- Shale gas and coalbed methane
- Supply issues and future supply variables
- Building and defining a gas market price
- Pricing differentials and volatility
- The forward price curve
- The contractual path from production to consumer
- Gas trading
- Structuring physical transactions
- Netbacks
- Gas transportation services
- How gas is nominated and scheduled (firm and interruptible)
- Balancing
- Gas operations
- Gas storage services
- Hubs and market center services
- Retail and distribution services
- Behind the meter and value-added services
Making Money & Managing Risk
- How companies make profits (competitive, under traditional regulation, under incentive regulation)
- Risk exposures in the energy business
- Physical tools for risk management
- Financial tools for risk management
- Value at risk (VAR)
The Future
- Regulation
- Technology
- Markets
"Very good description of the workings of the natural gas business. It helped me fill in the gaps in my understanding of the business."
Matthew T.
U.S. Department of Energy
"Great course, very intriguing and informative. Met expectations and then some. This was good and was comparable to my first experience with Enerdynamics on the electric side."
Brent K.
CoBank
"Unlike a lot of other courses, I truly feel this will facilitate my ability to do my job."
Beth D.
Pennsylvania Power & Light
"A nice pace and a complete process of understanding. There was never any assumption that you knew something. It was perfect."
Liane P.
Chevron Natural Gas
"This course provided an understanding of gas business operations. Well done! This class will be a yardstick by which all others will be measured. Excellent!"
Lorriane S.
DIstrigas of MA, LLC
"It was an open room discussion, so we could ask questions whenever we needed which made it very interesting and useful. Also, the exercises were so interesting and brought an excellent perspective to the material we covered."
Diana O
SourceGas
"It was a great overview of the gas industry."
Maureen S
Exelon Corp.
"Terrific lesson plan and thorough application to the industry. Terrific course and instructor!"
Lonnie L
Transcanada Pipelines
"I got useful information from everything I learned in this course."
Leslie M.
John D.
Oil and Gas Marketing
Group discount
Attend this seminar with your workgroup and you can save up to 25%. For every three people from the same company who attend this course, the fourth is free!
Networking reception
In addition to all you will learn, this seminar is also a great networking opportunity. We offer a hosted reception the first night of your course, which gives you the opportunity to continue networking with colleagues in a casual and comfortable environment. This is a great opportunity to develop valuable new relationships with peers in other companies and agencies.
Course length
Two days
Prerequisites
No prerequisites or advance preparation is required.
Seminar times
This seminar begins at 8:30 each day, and ends at 5:00 the first day and 4:00 the second day. But feel free to come early to enjoy complimentary breakfast, ask questions of your instructor and network with other class participants.
Registration fee
$1,390 (save $200 - only $1,190 if paid three weeks prior to seminar). This fee includes continental breakfast, lunch and morning and afternoon breaks. The fee also includes course materials and a networking reception the first night.
Cancellation policy
All class sizes are limited and your place in class is held exclusively for you. Registrations cancelled two weeks or more prior to the seminar date will receive a full refund minus a 10% administrative fee or a credit for 100% of the registration fee good towards any other Enerdynamics product. Registrations cancelled with less than two weeks notice but more than two days notice will receive a credit for 100% of the registration fee good towards any other Enerdynamics product. Registrations cancelled with less than two days notice are not eligible for refund or credit. Substitutions may be made at any time and without additional cost.
Contact us at 866-765-5432 or 'info' for more information.
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CPE credits? Absolutely!
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Bring this seminar onsite
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No risk to you!
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