Energy-Environment—Shale Boosts U.S., But Lack of Policy Sends Firms Abroad

Despite the new potential of shale gas, panelists lamented impacts from the lack of a clear energy policy in the U.S. as well as the growing oversupply of natural gas and the challenges in moving it to new locations amid booming production.

Although federal approval was to come on April 16 on a $10-billion gas-to-liquids plant in Louisiana, Martin Grant, energy sector CEO of Atkins, London, didn't see opportunities for E&C firms in shale-gas production facilities. Shaw Group Senior Vice President Jeff Merrifield also noted permitting challenges in building new pipelines.

But Alan J. Krause, CEO of MWH Global, sees a boom in the firm's hydropower work, particularly in the U.S. and Canada. While China also is embracing that segment, local firms dominate its market. "Our strategy is to take our services to Chinese firms outside China," he says. Grant adds that Chinese firms are starting to dominate Africa's growing oil and gas market.

Global prospects for nuclear power construction were compelling to Grant and Merrifield, despite the Japanese reactor catastrophe last year that they deemed irrelevant to Generation 3 reactors.

Executives on the panel expect to see work in the U.A.E., Saudi Arabia, Eastern Europe, Brazil and South Africa, in particular. Cheap gas supplies also could hamper the renewables market without government subsidies, said Grant.

Transportation—Mixed Outlook on Public-Private Partnerships (P3s)

Antonio DeSantiago, executive vice president of Infrastructure Ontario, the provincial construction agency, insays its success with P3s comes from "perceiving ourselves as a private agency performing a public service."