Interview with Ekaterina Kravetskaya, Marketing Director Russia 
How do you assess the importance of the St. Petersburg International Gas Forum (SPIGF) for the industry? What opportunities did the Forum open for your company – please share your experience.
The SPIGF undoubtedly plays an important role for the industry – it is a platform for meetings of both top management of companies and specialists to exchange experience, opinions, knowledge.
We have been a partner of the SPIGF Congress Programme for many years now, which opens up opportunities for mutually beneficial cooperation both with the Forum and with its other partners. Within the framework of the Forum, we have held several sessions and Round Tables on Hydrogen which found a great response among the participants and visitors of the Forum.
At the time of the last Hydrogen Round Table at the Forum in 2019, the topic was very up-to-date for most international energy companies, whereas the Russian partners were just beginning to show their interest. Today, we see a major shift in the development of hydrogen projects and active support from the government at all levels in Russia. Thanks to the Forum, we are receiving great interest from Russian energy companies to our international training programmes on hydrogen or in-company trainings on hydrogen innovations & international best practices. The need for knowledge and competencies in this area in the times of decarbonisation of energy supply and energy transformation will only grow. The task of our business school is to prepare qualified specialists who will contribute to the development of hydrogen economy.
During the pandemic year 2020 we continued to cooperate with the Forum. Together we organised a series of webinars with the leading international energy experts.
In addition to participating in the congress programme, we are also partner of the International Youth Day for over 5 years, a dialogue of generations that brings together more than 150 international students from energy universities from around the world. We are happy to attract Dutch universities and companies to participate in this project, as well as participate in the development of an interesting interactive events’ programme for students at the Forum. Without a doubt, this project can be called a landmark for the industry, as it is an informational, intellectual and interactive platform that brings together representatives of the industry business elite and youth audience from the world’s leading universities and to determine new vectors for the development of the gas industry and career opportunities for talented youth.
What do you expect from the Forum in 2021?
We are planning to join this years Forum. President of our Business School, Marcel Kramer, will moderate the session of the Association of European Businesses (AEB) Energy committee on the topic “International cooperation towards the carbon neutral energy supply”. We’ve also provided the recordings of our successful Virtual Micro MBA | Leadership in the World of the Energy Transition that took take place on 22 September, and as always we contribute to the International Energy Youth Day 2021– The Dialogue of Generations.
What could you wish the participants of the anniversary SPIGF?
We wish the participants of the 10th anniversary SPIGF fruitful work at the Forum in these difficult times, a speedy recovery and establishment on the path of innovative development within the framework of the current energy transition.
