Press Release
St.Petersburg International Gas Forum - 2016
From October 4 to 7 about 10 thousand experts of the fuel and energy sector from 36 counties took part in the "St. Petersburg International Gas Forum" that was held in EXPOFORUM Convention and Exhibition Centre.
Greeting the audience, Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Management Committee of Gazprom, called the Forum the acknowledged platform used to discuss development of the global gas sector, and Georgy Poltavchenko, Governor of St. Petersburg, said that it's not by chance 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, and over the years this city became the pioneer and the center for many directions of the industry development.
During the key event of the business program, the Plenary Session on the subject Gas Industry as the energy pillar of the global economy, heads of the largest oil and gas companies in the world assessed the state and capacity of natural gas markets in their countries and in the world in general. According to Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Management Committee of Gazprom, global gas consumption is expected to increase by 30 % in 15 years in regard to 3.5 trn m3 that we have now. "According to our estimates, within the nearest 25 years annual average growth rates of these parameters in the world will become 3.5 times higher than consumption of liquid hydrocarbons and carbon, and will reach 30 % in 15 years. Another challenge encountered by the global economy is that developed countries, net-importers of gas, are short of their own power resources". China is a bright example of dynamically increasing gas consumption. The largest PRC corporation CNPC was presented by its Vice President Xu Wenrong, "Since 2000 the natural gas market of China has been rapidly growing, and annual volume of consumption increased from 24.5 mlrd to 191.6 mlrd m3 by 2015, and if we compare the data of the previous year with the current one, the growth comes to 15 %". Ben van Beurden, CEO of Royal Dutch Shell plc, and Manfred Leitner, Member of Board of Directors at OMV AG, remarked that under the actual conditions cooperation of the largest players within the gas industry is inevitable and vitally necessary.
During the Forum different events took place; they were associated with development of the Russian gas engine sector and use of LNG and CNG as fuel. Global volume of low-tonnage LNG production will grow from 25.5 mln tons in 2015 to 62 mln tons in 2020 - such forecast was announced by Vyacheslav Khakhalkin, Member of the Management Committee, Senior Engineer, Deputy CEO of Gazprom Gas-Engine Fuel LLC, during the Applied conference Key Aspects in Use of Liquefied Natural Gas as Engine Fuel.
For the second year the dialogue of generations in the energy and gas sector took place during Youth day, where representatives of the leading energy companies such as Gazprom, N.V. Nederlandse Gasunie, Uniper AG, Shell and Wintershall Holding GmbH, met over 200 students from 12 countries. During Youth day different workshops were held: Innovations - Breaking the Frame, Role of LNG in the Future Energy Transition, Risks Landscape in the Energy Business, New Technological Challenges: Scenarios of Energy Development, where 135 students from all over Russia were divided into four teams led by the experienced moderators - Cristoph Burger from ESMT, Thierry Bros and Kostas Andriosopoulos from EDI, and Sergey Vakulenko from Gazprom Neft PJSC. Each team had its own task to solve, from developing a business strategy for an offshore LNG project to assessment of risks for an international gas-transport project. A case contest Energy Today and Tomorrow took place during this event, too. 7 teams from Russia, Germany, Netherlands and France contended for the grand prize - the educational trip to energy companies-partners. The Russian team Chemical Squad won the contest. General partners and sponsors of the Youth day were the International Business Congress and Gazprom, whereas the event was established by the Higher Economic School of the St. Petersburg State University of Economics and the Foundation of International Innovative Programs.
The Convention program was accompanied by a large exposition that in the area of 25 thousand m2 united three international specialised exhibitions: "InGAS Stream - Innovations in the Gas industry", "Gas Engine Fuel" and "ROS-GAS-EXPO" that were participated by over 500 companies from 14 countries.
The international exhibition "InGAS Stream" is one of the leading events where the most advanced technologies, products and services for the gas sector are presented. This year the exhibition united over 250 leading companies, including developers of innovative products and technologies, design and research institutions taking part in development of the state and regional programs for gasification, energy saving, development of small fields and exploration of new raw hydrocarbons sources. Thus, ChelPipe Group presented its samples of high-tech equipment: pipes with connectors, pipes and branch pipes made of corrosion-proof steels for LNG plants, threaded joints. In a special stand of Gazprom Gazenergoset dedicated to e-commerce, the visitors could follow an e-auction online, learn the mechanism of bidding in the e-commerce site and be advised by the company's experts. The company Surgut Perevalka presented the project for construction of the complex of process plants for treatment of 340°С-КК gas condensate fraction, and the international energy company Uniper SE presented its innovative projects for the gas sector development.
The "Gas Engine Fuel" exhibition was participated by the leading Russian and international companies of the sector which presented almost every area of focus associated with development of the gas engine infrastructure. At the stand of "Gazprom Gas-Engine Fuel" fourteen new CNG filling stations were started online upon command of Alexey Miller, from Sakhalin to St. Petersburg. More over, Gazprom Gas-Engine Fuel established a special exhibition that was participated by manufacturers of machines and equipment related to natural gas as engine fuel, including Kirovsky Zavod Gas Technologies LLC, Barrens JSC, MobiGas, Avtovaz JSC, Rotor Engineering Group. Partners of the Forum - NGV Italy Association - shared their international experience on use of natural gas and creation of conditions for the gas engine fuel market expansion. The most advanced innovations and achievements within the sector were demonstrated by the Korean participants, KANGV (Korean Association for Natural Gas Vehicles) and the leading companies of the Korean Republic - ILJIN Composites, TK-FUJIKIN, HAMI TECH, KNMT.
One of the subjects in the center of attention during the Forum was the matter of import substitution that was covered both by the exhibition and the business program. In the exhibition Import Substitution in the Gas Industry with area of 1200 m2 over 100 samples and models of machines and technologies were demonstrated by about 30 manufacturers of import-substituting equipment intended for the oil and gas sector, including TMK, OMK, Power Machines, ChelPipe Group, TEMZ, Borkhimmash, Severstal, NIPOM, Tekon, Kosmos-neft-gaz, NG-Energo and others. During the Forum the Meeting of the inter-agency working group for reduction of the Russian Fuel-Energy Complex dependence on import took place that was attended by Denis Manturov, Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation. He explained that in January 2017 the 925th Decree of the RF Government is to come into effect, that is to establish priority of Russian goods, works and services in case purchasing is made by companies with the state support, "We are also developing criteria that will be used to consider the most important types of oil and gas equipment as the Russian production - by the end of October the corresponding updates to the 719th decree will be reported to the Government. Companies of the Fuel and Energy Complex will have to consider all these requirements during their procurement activities", said Denis Manturov. During the Meeting Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Management Committee of Gazprom, thanked the Ministry of Industry and Trade of RF and the Inter-agency Working Group for efficient forms of work, development and replication of the creative approach in regard to matters of import substitution within the industry, "We, Gazprom, the Ministry and the Working group for import substitution in the Fuel and Energy Complex, have for a short period of time introduced new forms of work and obtained new results. We followed the way of signing contracts, special investment agreements, road-maps for certain enterprises and regions, and in some of the regions it resulted in increase of procurement under the import substitution programs by 30 %", Alexey Miller said.
"St. Petersburg International Gas Forum" was held with the support of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation, the Government of St. Petersburg, the Russian Gas Society and NGV Italy.
The General Partner of the Forum is Gazprom, and the General Sponsor is Bank Rossiya JSC, its partners are Uniper, Gazprom Avtomatizatsiya PJSC, Salavatneftehimrenstroy JSC, Gazprom Gas-Engine Fuel LLC, Chelyabinsk Pipe-Rolling Plant PJSC, Gazprom Proektirovanie LLC and Gazprombank JSC.