The 6th St. Petersburg International Gas Forum started with the Plenary Session on the subject Gas Industry as the Energy Pillar of the Global Economy.
Delegates of the Forum were welcomed by Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Management Committee of Gazprom, “The Forum has become one of the main platforms for discussion of the global gas sector development. Every year the scope of this event extends. This year about three thousand delegates from several dozens countries are going to take part in it. This year the exhibition is dedicated to new technologies and equipment for the gas sector under the Russian import substitution program, in which Gazprom has its active part”. Mr. Miller has specially noted the Youth Day during the Forum, “As it was a success last year, we decided to continue this dialogue of generations in the energy and gas industry”. He announced an outstanding cultural event, for the first time coordinated with the Forum, the concert of global celebrities in classic music and opera singing from Russia and Austria “Imperial Capitals: Vienna and St. Petersburg” that is to take place in the St. Petersburg Academic Philharmonia.
Members of the Forum have also been welcomed by Georgy Poltavchenko, Governor of St. Petersburg. He noticed that it’s not by occasion that the key oil and gas event is held in St. Petersburg, as it was here that about 200 years ago the gas industry began – in 1818 it was the first place in Russia, where gas street-lamps were used. St. Petersburg became pioneer for many directions of the industry development, such as construction of gas pipelines and gas plants, technologies for discovery and recovery of gas, development of schemes for gas supply of regions. “We’re proud that the strategic partner of our city is Gazprom that is now erecting the largest office center in Europe, of more than 400 meters high, and always aids St. Petersburg in solving many economical and ecological matters and takes active part in its improvement”, Mr. Poltavchenko emphasized. “Within the framework of switching the heat power system to natural gas the city is now consuming about 10.5 mlrd m3 a year. Over 1500 large and medium enterprises of the city work on gas. An actual trend is switching city transport to gas engine fuel, which provides a significant impact into solving the ecological problems of St. Petersburg and development of new technologies, as well”.
The key subject of the Plenary Session was discussed by heads of the largest oil and gas companies – Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Management Committee of Gazprom, Ben van Beurden, CEO of Royal Dutch Shell plc, Klaus Schäfer, Member of the Board, CEO of Uniper SE, Manfred Leitner, Member of Board of Directors at OMV AG, and Xu Wenrong, Vice President of CNPC. They assessed the state and capacity of natural gas markets in their countries and in the world in general, discussed amounts of energy being consumed and perspectives for development of energy resources. The speakers agreed that certain problems of the global economy can’t be solved unless the global consumption of natural gas increases, that is why synergy and cooperation of the largest gas corporations in matters of the sector development are necessary for stable economic growth.
