Alexey Miller moderates 34th Presiding Committee Meeting and 19th General Meeting of International Business Congress
St. Petersburg hosted today the 34th Presiding Committee Meeting and the 19th Annual General Meeting of the International Business Congress (IBC) moderated by Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee and President of the IBC.
The Meeting participants took stock of the IBC performance in 2015. In particular, they approved the annual report for the fiscal year 2015 and commended the IBC Presiding Committee and the IBC Board of Executive Directors for their work over that period. Besides, the Chairpersons of the Working Committees presented their progress reports. PricewaterhouseCoopers Berlin was appointed the IBC auditor for 2016.
The Meeting also included the election of the IBC Executive Board and Presiding Committee. Alexey Miller was reelected as the IBC President. Klaus Schaefer, Chief Executive Officer of Uniper, was elected as the IBC Vice President.
The new Presiding Committee consists of Peter Clarke, Vice President, ExxonMobil; Ramunas Miliauskas, Director General, Achema Group; Hiroyuki Muraoka, General Manager, International Bank Department, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation; Ronald Pollett, Vice President, General Electric and President & CEO, General Electric Oil&Gas Russia and CIS; and Vyacheslav Mikhalenko, Management Committee Member and Department Head, Gazprom.
The IBC established a new Working Committee on Modern Technologies and Prospective Oil and Gas Industry Projects to be headed by Vitaly Markelov, Deputy Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee.
It was resolved to hold the next General Meeting in Vienna, Austria, in 2017.
The Cooperation in the Energy Sector as a Stabilizing Factor for the Global Economy Conference took place as part of the Congress.
“The energy industry is crucial for long-term competitiveness. Reliable, sufficient, and affordable energy supply is key to business expansion and stable economic growth. At present, the European economy has an increasing demand for imported gas. The EU's domestic production is steadily declining and this trend will continue to strengthen in the coming years. Over 10 years, the import share in the European consumption of natural gas has climbed significantly to almost 50 per cent. Meanwhile, gas consumption remains steady and even rises.
In the coming decade, Europe will need some 100 billion cubic meters of additional gas per year. It should be noted that nowadays there is no infrastructure to supply those extra 100 billion cubic meters to Europe. In order to secure additional gas supplies in 10 years, we need to create the required gas transmission capacities now.
To this end, Gazprom consistently pursues the strategy of establishing new export routes. Our non-transit Nord Stream pipeline is operating successfully. A number of European energy companies cooperate with Gazprom to create a new export trunkline, Nord Stream 2. As this project responds to the interests of Europe's energy majors and their clients alike, it will without a doubt be of immense value to the European continent,” said Alexey Miller.
The IBC kicked off Blue Corridor-2016: Amber Road, the 10th NGV rally that will take place from May 26 to June 10 across nine countries bordering the Baltic Sea. The anniversary event will focus on the use of natural gas as a fuel for not only motor vehicles, but also water transport. The rally route includes major business centers, as well as seaports in Russia, Estonia, Poland, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, and Finland.
In addition, a working meeting took place today between Alexey Miller and Mario Mehren, Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors of Wintershall. The parties discussed further cooperation in the oil and gas industry and Russian gas supplies to Europe.
Background
The International Business Congress (IBC) is an international non-governmental and non-profit organization. The IBC consists of 125 members, including Gazprom, Deutsche Bank, ExxonMobil, ENGIE, Gasunie, J.P. Morgan Bank International, KPMG, Mitsubishi, Mizuho Bank, Siemens, Shell, Statoil, Schneider Electric, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, Total, Uniper, Wintershall, Sakhalin Energy, Srbijagas, and others. The IBC membership comprises 27 countries.
The IBC's supreme body is the General Meeting. The 51-member Presiding Committee exercises general management. The 9-member Board of Executive Directors is responsible for operational issues.
The Congress deals with the practical aspects of economic cooperation and brings forward proposals for debottlenecking and building a favorable environment for safe and efficient entrepreneurial activities. The IBC operates through seven Working Committees: Energy; Industry, Innovations and Prospective Development; Law, Banking and Finance; Information and Communications; Ecology and Healthcare; Human Resources, Education and Science; and Business Security.
On September 4, 2015, Gazprom, BASF, ENGIE, OMV, Shell, and Uniper inked the Shareholders Agreement to construct the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline system with the annual capacity of 55 billion cubic meters from Russia to Germany across the Baltic Sea.
Blue Corridor is an annual international rally for natural gas-fueled vehicles. The project is meant to demonstrate the environmental, technical, and economic advantages of natural gas over conventional fuels and to showcase the variety of modern factory-built gas equipment. The rally program includes gas equipment exhibitions and roundtables featuring representatives of the gas and transportation industries, heads of state and municipal authorities, and managers of car factories. The Blue Corridor rallies supported by Gazprom, Germany's Uniper, and the Russian National Gas Vehicle Association have been held since 2008. www.bluecorridor.org
