4000 delegates from more than 80 countries of the world, including 30 ministers and 400 heads of the largest companies in the branch arrived to the opening ceremony to the State Kremlin Palace.

The Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, Chairman of the Organizing Committee of the World Petroleum Congress Arkadiy Dvorkovich and the President of the World Petroleum Council Renato Bertani participated in the ceremony.

This year the basic theme of the congress is «Responsibly Energising a Growing World». During three days the experts will discuss relations between producers and consumers of petroleum products, ecological security and guarantee of energy stability, financing of the branch, traditional and non-traditional resources of oil and gas. Also it is planned to speak about projects on gas and oil extraction in the Arctic.
The petroleum branch is one of dynamically developing sectors of the world economy, and the congress gives a good opportunity for specialists from different countries to share advanced experience and to receive expert assessment on the most pressing problems of modern oil and gas industry. It was declared by the minister for energy of the Russian Federation Alexander Novak within the congress.
As we should note, the World Petroleum Congress takes place once in 3 years in different countries during more than 80 years. This year it has been organized for the 21st time.