Meet

Alex Perales Josa, a career spent in the gas sector

23/04/18

Alex Perales Josa has spent practically his entire career in the gas sector, first at Engie and GRT Gaz, before finally joining the sales team at Dunkerque LNG. He talked to us about his job and what keeps him interested.

"My background is mainly in gas. I first started working at Engie (formerly Gaz de France). I stayed there for 4 years. I managed information system projects for underground storage facilities and LNG terminals before becoming an account manager at GRT Gaz overseeing a client portfolio," he explains. In 2013, the sales manager had the chance to join Dunkerque LNG. He didn't think twice. He was attracted by the massive industrial construction site where everything had to be built from scratch. "I came to join the sales team, focusing on the construction site underway, specifically the "Yamal" project that didn’t get the go-ahead in the end," explains Alex. Dunkerque LNG offered him a new challenge: growing the LNG terminal's commercial activity, in particular the small-scale market. This involves small deliveries of LNG for facilities not connected to the system, or companies using LNG for road or maritime transport. Dunkerque LNG decided to invest in a station specifically for filling tank lorries with LNG, as well as a filling station for ship tankers. Alex worked on both projects. "It took a lot of work to convince our first clients, as well as our shareholders and partners," he says. "Today, with the commissioning of the terminal, the sales department's job is more operations-oriented," he adds. "We’re scheduling the arrival of tankers with clients, then managing the distribution of gas on the network for our clients. We're on call 24/7 in case of any unforeseen events and to decide with the operator and our clients how to resolve the problem so it has the least commercial impact possible." Alex, who works at the Dunkerque LNG premises in La Défense in Paris, also has another dimension to his job. He has to sell the surplus capacity at the Dunkerque LNG terminal in a changing global LNG market. This is no mean feat when you consider that trends in the LNG market are constantly evolving, making the global market a hard beast to tame. "But it’s all part of the job," he says, smiling, every inch the sales manager. "Don't get me wrong, it's a lot of work, but I love it because no two days are ever the same."

Article présenté sur la lettre d'information : Avril 2018