Pipelines, Power and Politics: Steinberg Calls for Resilience Revolution at PTC 2026
A keynote at PTC 2026 warns Europe must prioritize pipeline infrastructure and energy resilience over efficiency, as geopolitical shocks reshape gas supply, LNG imports and hydrogen network development.
Jim Watkins, European Business Development Director and Podcast Host
(P&GJ) — Dr. Phillipp Steinberg, former head of energy security at the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action and now with PMS EEL and Boston Consulting Group, delivered the keynote address at the 21st Pipeline Technology Conference (PTC), urging the global pipeline industry to reframe itself not as a legacy sector in managed decline, but as the sovereign infrastructure backbone of Europe’s energy future.
Speaking to more than 1,000 delegates from 57 countries, Steinberg opened with a direct reference to August 31, 2022, the day Russia cut gas supplies through Nord Stream 1, eliminating more than 50% of Germany’s gas supply overnight. “There were many in Germany who thought that was a situation Germany could not endure,” he said. Germany responded with unprecedented speed, procuring floating liquified natural gas (LNG) terminals in under 12 months in a country where a wind turbine permit typically takes more than 7 yrs.
But Steinberg’s central warning was that Europe absorbed the shock and then moved on too quickly. “The tragedy is that Germany went back to business as usual,” he said. “That wake-up call was not really heard.”
He identified three compounding shocks now reshaping the global energy map: the war in Ukraine and the silencing of Nord Stream; the Iranian crisis and closure of the Strait of Hormuz; and what he called American energy transactionalism, in which energy supply is wielded as a geopolitical bargaining chip. “We cannot continue to optimize energy just for efficiency reasons,” Steinberg said. “We need a resilience-based approach.”
A significant portion of the address was devoted to what Steinberg called the underappreciated reality of the molecular world. With more than 70% of Germany’s and Europe’s energy still delivered in molecular form, he argued that policy discourse has been dangerously skewed toward electrons. “I was advising foreign ministers and we talked a lot about electrons and not enough about molecules,” he said. “That needs to change.”
Steinberg made a pointed economic argument in favor of pipelines specifically, noting that pipeline transport is five to ten times more cost-effective than high-voltage direct current power lines. “Pipeline is not just an energy asset,” he said. “It’s the most cost-efficient large-scale energy transport technology that exists. You know that. Let’s spread the word.”
On hydrogen (H2), Steinberg outlined Germany’s 9,000-kilometer H2 core network, 60% of which will be repurposed gas pipelines, with a total investment of €20 B backed by state guarantee. He projected that Germany will need to import roughly 70% of its H2 requirements, and called for more pragmatic EU regulatory frameworks, including a review of additionality criteria that he said, if corrected, could reduce H2 costs by 20% to 30%.
He closed with three takeaways that drew strong applause. First, resilience is the new efficiency, with the optimization era having ended definitively on February 24, 2022. Second, the molecular transition deserves the same political ambition as the electricity transition. Third, and most pointedly: energy infrastructure is sovereignty infrastructure. “You are not just building energy assets,” Steinberg told the audience. “You are building strategic autonomy.”