The 10th Anniversary St. Petersburg International Gas Forum
This year, the St. Petersburg International Gas Forum (SPIGF) was attended by nearly 13 thousand participants from 28 countries. The convention program embraced 70+ events, and 470 companies presented their advanced projects for the gas industry at the exhibition. 100+ media covered the SPIGF proceedings.
SPIGF 2021 proved that the new format of business events featuring a mix of online and offline meeting can be highly efficient – it ensured powerful synergy and enabled a wider audience coverage during the pandemic.
The Anniversary St. Petersburg International Gas Forum became one of the largest convention and exhibition events in Russia in 2021. It is the most sound evidence of business proceedings in Russia finally getting back on track.
“Hot discussions at the Forum, keen interest and response of the mass media – these were the best gifts for the event’s anniversary. In 10 years, this project worked its way up from a minor ROS-GAS-EXPO exhibition and a display telling about the first Russian gas lamp to something that can be worthily called the major industrial event in the Russian Federation. Well, it must be one of the most prestigious and large-scale dedicated events in the world!” this was how Sergey Voronkov, CEO for ExpoForum International, summarized the Gas Forum results.
CONVENTION PROGRAM
The convention program embraced 70+ events. The 2021 agenda of the Forum featured 20 business tracks. This time the Forum covered not only the traditional issues, but also some new essential aspects, including sustainable development of the sector, unconventional gas, the legal aspects of the oil and gas business, logistics and transport and use of helium.
In 4 days of the Forum, dozens of debates, meetings, presentations and round-table discussions took place, attended by chief executives of the top Russian and foreign companies, as well as state authorities’ officials.
Over 30% of the events under the convention program were participated by international experts from Belgium, Switzerland, UAE, India, Indonesia, Brazil, Australia, Kazakhstan, Nigeria, USA, Norway, Canada, Netherlands, Germany, Jordan, France, and UK.
PLENARY SESSION
The central event of the Forum was the plenary session Natural Gas: New Challenges and Solutions for the Global Energy Sector, where the participants talked about the gas supplies to Europe situation. Because of gas prices increasing, it remains complicated in the European Union countries, while the demand for Russian fuel keeps growing.
Plenary session speakers:
Elena Burmistrova, Deputy Chairman of the Management Committee at Gazprom
Alfred Stern, Chairman of the Executive Board and CEO of OMV AG
Jean-Marie Dauger, Chairman of the World Energy Council
Joe M. Kang, President of the International Gas Union
Maarten Wetselaar, Integrated Gas, Renewables and Energy Solutions Director, Member of the Executive Committee at Royal Dutch Shell plc
Klaus-Dieter Maubach, Chief Executive Officer at Uniper SE
YOUTH DAY
As usual, at the Youth Day representatives of the business elite met the best emerging specialists and students from top Russian and European universities during the off-tie meeting. This year, 40 students from 25 universities of 9 countries got short-listed.
Youth Day is aimed to provide an interactive educational platform that brings together talented youth and industry experts from all around the world for the transfer of knowledge on energy business and searching for new ideas and solutions.
The organiser is the Higher Economic School of St. Petersburg State University of Economics (HES UNECON). Youth Day holds the status of the International Business Congress’s (IBC) working project. It is held under the financial and organizational support of the IBC member companies.
EXHIBITION PROGRAM
The exposition arranged in ExpoForum at the area of 40 thousand m2 was of special interest, as it covered literally every sector of the petroleum industry: the 8th International Specialised Exhibition InGAS Stream — Innovations in the Gas Industry, the 5th Specialised Exposition Import Substitution in the Gas Industry, the 7th International Specialised Exhibition Gas Engine Fuel, and the 24th International Specialised Exhibition of Natural Gas Industry and Technology for Gas Facility ROS-GAS-EXPO.
The list of participants included Gazprom, Uniper SE, Boskalis, Comita Group, Siemens Energy, HMS Group, OMK, Gazprom Bureniye, Kosmos-Neft-Gaz, Gazprom Mezhregiongaz, Severstal, United Industrial Complex, Salavat Catalyst Plant, PSI, Ural Automobile Plant, GAZ Group, and others.
Cutting-edge advanced technologies were presented by top manufacturers, including Almaz-Antey Air and Space Defence Corporation, Izmeron Factory, TMK, ESTM, REP Holding, Valcom, Kurgandormash, Linde Severstal, Motovilikha Plants etc.
At the Import Substitution in the Gas Industry exhibition, 60 companies presented 160+ samples of high-tech products. For instance, Izmeron Factory that managed to substitute imported underground equipment for high-pressure and corrosive environment wells presented their equipment systems for lower and upper oil and gas well completion of their own design. REP Holding demonstrated their 32 MW industrial gas-turbine single-frame unit T32-1, as well as a full-size prototype of a suitable rotor.
At an outside venue, the exhibition of natural gas vehicles was arranged, in particular showcasing the cars that had participated in the Blue Corridor – Gas into Engines 2021 Rally.
PARTICIPATION OF SUBJECTS OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
Constituent units of the Russian Federation took active part in SPIGF, too. Republics of Bashkortostan and Tatarstan, the Perm Land, the Chelyabinsk and Omsk Regions delivered collaborative stands of their industrial companies. Official delegations attending the Forum included representatives from the Moscow, Leningrad, Astrakhan, Belgorod, Bryansk, Volgograd, Vladimir, and Kursk Regions, as well as the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous District, the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), the Republic of Kalmykia, and other regions.
During SPIGF, constituent units of the Russian Federation made agreements with industrial companies and state authorities. In particular, such agreements were signed by the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation, the United Industrial Complex, Siemens, the Administration of the Nenets Autonomous District, the RUSKHIM Management company, TMK, Weatherford, RARITEK Holding, Avangard, RusGazBureniye, Uralmash NGO Holding and others.