Russia's first petroleum congress opens in Moscow

MOSCOW, March 14 (Itar-Tass) - Russia's first petroleum congress opens
in Moscow on Monday to focus on problems and prospects of the domestic oil industry.
It will bring together over 2,000 business people, industrialists and esearchers.
Among participants are Vice President of the Russian Academy of
Sciences, Academicians Nikolai Laverov and Sergei Aldoshin, the director of the Oil and Gas Research Institute, Academician Anatoly Dmitriyevsky, World Petroleum Council president Randy Gossen and Deputy Energy Minister Sergei Kudryashov.
"The main themes of the congress are oil as a global source of energy, modernization of Russia's oil and gas complex and a development strategy for modernization of the petrochemical industry and crude refinery," according to the organizing committee.
Moreover, the congress will provide a platform for young people from
different countries aged between 18 to 33 years to exchange opinions and
search for innovative approaches.
On the last day of the forum a memorandum to host the 21st World
Petroleum Congress in Moscow in 2014 will be signed. Russia won the
bidding contest last autumn.