Management and employees of NIS had the opportunity to hear the presentations held by representative of a respectable consultancy firm Fleishman Hillard, Mr. Matt Hinde, the vice-president and the head of the Department for EU Strategy in the Area of Energy with the Government of Great Britain in the period 2013-2015, and Mr. James Stivens, a partner in the firm and an expert for relations with EU institutions, with a speciality in the areas of energy and chemical industry. Giving a short review of the history and goals of the EU energy policy, the speakers also discussed topics such as liberalisation of energy market in Europe, the effects which the dramatic drop in raw oil prices had on the EU energy policy and on the operations of oil production companies in EU. They stressed that understanding EU energy policy today requires understanding of the issue of EU's dependency on import of energy products – gas from Russia and oil from the Middle East and the sensitivity of the EU market to even the slightest crises in these portions of the world. Тhe experts concluded that the underlying causes for the drop of the prices are: the revolution in the technology of non-conventional oil production in USA, slowed production growth in China and the global drop in energy demand. Since NIS is also susceptible to effects of market changes, the audience was interested in hearing more about specific steps which the global leading countries, like USA and China, intend to take in order to comply with the SOR21 Agreement concluded in December 2015, and about perspectives for fossil fuels in the future periods and the quality of fuel available in the market. They particularly stressed that at this moment it is very important for NIS to participate in current debates regarding new legislative solutions in EU and in this way help EU be informed about current issues related to this portion of Europe.
