OREANDA-NEWS. The 23rd International Caspian Oil & Gas Conference takes place on June 2-3, 2016 at the JW Marriott Absheron Baku Hotel. Sir Andrew Wood, Senior Advisor, ITE Group PLC opened the conference and delivered a keynote speech. Speaking on the subject “Azerbaijan’s role in ensuring energy supply to Europe” at the plenary session, Minister of Energy Azerbaijan Natig Aliyev briefed on energy policy of Azerbaijan and realized international oil and gas projects. UK PM’s Trade Envoy for Azerbaijan Baroness Nicholson emphasized the significance of the conference and spoke about the role of Azerbaijan in energy supply to Europe. SOCAR President Rovnag Abdullayev was a Chairman and keynote speaker at the second session “The Caspian region’s gas infrastructure: the state of implementing key projects in the region”. He spoke about the achievements of Azerbaijan’s energy policy, development of new oil and gas fields, diversified transportation system, energy investments, modernization of refining and petrochemistry industries. He informed the participants about the work done within the Southern Gas Corridor project.

The session also heard the speeches on the theme “Shah Deniz - celebrating 20 years of success” by Gordon Birrell, BP’s Regional President for Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, “The infrastructure player’s role for the effective development of the Southern Corridor and the EU single market” by Marco Alvera, CEO, Snam. General Electric and McDermott representatives also delivered speeches.

The Day 1 of the conference held the sessions “Shah Deniz - building on 20 years of success” and “Financing and implementing major oil and gas projects” , which chairmen and keynote speakers were Elshad Nassirov, SOCAR Vice President for investments and marketing and Suleyman Gasimov, SOCAR Vice President for economic issues. The speeches were followed by extensive exchange of views.

The conference will continue its activity and hold four more sessions on June 4. The sessions on the themes “Expanding Azerbaijan’s energy resource base”, “Training professionals for oil and gas projects”, “Ensuring environmental and industrial safety”, “An overview of petrochemistry and oil refining in Azerbaijan and their development prospects”. Chairpersons and keynote speakers will be Academician Khoshbakht Yusifzade, SOCAR First Vice President, Khalik Mammadov, SOCAR Vice President for HR, IT and regulations, Rafiga Huseynzade, SOCAR Vice President for ecology and David Mammadov, SOCAR Vice President for refining. The sessions will hear the reports by SOCAR vice presidents, representatives of the world’s other leading oil and gas companies, well-known energy experts.