Opening of PIPELINE SYSTEMS: Construction. Operation. Maintenance exhibition and conference in Moscow, Focus Communication
Release Date: 2010-12-07
Moscow, Dec 07: The 9-th Exhibition & Conference "PIPELINE SYSTEMS: Construction. Operation. Maintenance" and the Forum “Russian Oil and Gas Industry”, organized by Expobroker and Promyshlennost & Stroitelstvo and supported by the Russian State Duma Committee for Energy, has been officially opened on December 7 by the major representatives of the Russian oil and gas construction community: Leonid Simanovsky, First Deputy Chairman of the Russian State Duma Committee for Energy, Gennady Shmal, President of the Union of Oil & Gas Producers of Russia and one of the founders of oil and gas industry in West Siberia, Oleg Ivantsov, Chief Advisor of the Russian Union of Oil and Gas Construction, and Alexey Kontorovich, Chairman of RAN Scientific Council for Geology and Oil and Gas Development.
PIPELINE SYSTEMS Exhibition & Conference and the Forum “Russian Oil and Gas Industry” are focused on trunk, technological and field pipelines, pipelines in housing and communal economy and gas distribution.
As the keynote speakers have emphasized at the opening ceremony and during the morning press conference, the Russian oil and gas industry has overcome the crisis, which is witnessed by better results over the last 10 months as compared to 2009. Diversification of markets for the Russian gas, as well as transport and export of hydrocarbons, development of refining, efficient operation of pipelines and their safety are today essential for the Russian and international oil and gas projects such as ESPO, North Stream, South Stream and other projects. Russia plays a central role in ensuring European energy safety, which makes it increasingly important for Russia to implement innovative materials, technologies, and new technical standards and regulations for safe construction and operation of pipelines. As the speakers noted, “development of standards is a two-way street for the industry and the regulators”.
One of the current problems in this area is, firstly, that Russia currently has no national standards for pipeline construction and operation and, secondly, that the major Russian oil and gas companies are too focused on company-oriented customization of the requirements and standards which should, ideally, be independent, as Nikolay Varlamov, VP of VNIIST (Russian Scientific Research Institute for Pipeline Construction and Operation), said at the press conference. It is notable that the core authorities are already addressing this: the Russian Ministry for Regional Development has commissioned VNIIST to develop construction rules and standards involving the representatives of the major Russian oil and gas companies.
In this regard, it is increasingly important for the Russian pipeline construction industry to develop cooperation both at a national and international scale. The first success was brought to Russia by Polymergaz: the new edition of construction rules and standards for gas supply networks has been successfully tested in Germany in cooperation with DVGW, a new partner of the Russian oil and gas construction industry.
The third important issue for the current development of the Russian oil and gas construction industry is self-regulation in industrial safety and development of technical standards. Again, it is notable here that the speakers have named quite a few new SROs (self regulation organizations) in Russia such as Neftegazstroy and other expert councils in oil and gas construction.
PIPELINE SYSTEMS Exhibition & Conference features the main Russian companies, universities, research centres, institutions and associations in oil and gas construction and promises to be a strong platform to discuss improvement and development of the legal basis of the industry and providing cutting edge technologies and equipment for pipeline control and diagnostics for the Russian pipeline system as a “unique engineering project of the XX century”, as Gennady Shmal noted at the opening ceremony.
| Type: | NORMAL |
| Company: | Focus Communication |
| Country: | Russian Federation |