On 6th October, the St. Petersburg International Gas Forum will host a conference “Oil and Gas Industry Contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals”.

The discussion organised by the Russian National Committee of the World Petroleum Council, will focus on one of the most urgent issues for the industry: the role and place of the global oil and gas industry in balancing economic, social and environmental processes to improve the quality of life.

While oil and gas companies are close to all 17 sustainability goals proclaimed by the UN General Assembly, there are several areas that enable the sector to reach its fullest potential. These include, first and foremost, sustainable and efficient energy access, sustainable production and consumption patterns, climate and environmental challenges, and global partnership mechanisms.

These are the areas that will be the focus of discussion at the conference. The high level of interest in the event and the very representative composition of the participants show that the issues to be discussed are at the heart of the industry: both business and science are concerned about finding the best answers to today's challenges.

Announced participants of the conference: Laszlo Varro, Vice President for Global Business Environment at Shell; Natalia Tretiak, First Vice President at Gazprombank; Armin Ludwig Dorgathen Tapia, Vice President of Administration, Contracts and Control at Yacimientos Petroliferos Fiscales Bolivianos (YPFB); Michael Collins, Chief Executive Officer of Salym Petroleum Development N.V.; Sergey Vakulenko, Head of Strategy and Innovation at Gazprom Neft.

The conference is expected to be a platform to discuss strategic approaches to setting energy sector priorities in the context of low-carbon development. Alexey Kontorovich and Anatoly Dmitrievsky, Academicians of RAS; Vasily Bogoyavlensky and Alexander Shirov, Corresponding members of RAS; Tatiana Mitrova, Head of Research at SKOLKOVO Energy Centre; Tor Fjaeran, President of the World Petroleum Council; and Didier Holleaux, President of the EUROGAS Association are also invited to take part in the discussion.

One of the conference sessions will be devoted to a discussion of the specifics of training for the energy sector of the future, intergenerational continuity. Kirill Molodtsov, Chairman of the Editorial Board of the National Industry Journal “Oil & Gas Vertical”; Yuri Pikhtovnikov, Head of Department for Organizational Development and Career Management at LUKOIL; Ilya Dementyev, Rector of Gazprom Neft Corporative University will participate in the discussion.

The 10th Anniversary Saint Petersburg International Gas Forum will be held at the venue of Expoforum from 5 to 8 October, 2021. Discussions by SPIGF participants tend to help formulate concrete recommendations to improve the economic and social efficiency of the oil and gas complex, and promote the development of international contacts.

This is the first year when Association “RNC of the WPC” is a co-organiser of Saint Petersburg International Gas Forum.