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The XXVIII International Conference “Oil and Gas of Turkmenistan” and the industry exhibition within its framework opened on Wednesday in Ashgabat. The largest energy forum in the region, OGT 2023, brought together more than 700 delegates from 46 countries - representatives of international companies and organizations, diplomatic missions and ministries, banks and various funds.

This year's OGT slogan is “Reliable. Sustainable. Clean Energy" reflects the main focus of the forum, which began with a pre-conference dialogue on SDG 7. Its theme is "Transition to green energy in Turkmenistan: tools and innovative solutions." The dialogue was organized jointly with the UN permanent mission in Turkmenistan, and was moderated by Director of the UNECE Sustainable Energy Division, Dario Liguti.

During the discussions, Vladimir Valetka, representing the Office of the UN Resident Coordinator in Turkmenistan, and Branko Milicevic, Economic Affairs Officer of the UNECE Sustainable Energy Department, spoke at the event and presented the vision of the carbon neutrality road map for Turkmenistan. His colleague from the same department, Nadezhda Khamrakulova, continued the conversation in terms of hydrogen production.

This topic was discussed in various focuses in the report of Khakberdi Khoshdurdyev, Director of the Center for Hydrogen Energy at the Yagshygeldi Kakaev International University of Oil and Gas, as well as in the speech of Alexander Ustyuzhanin, Sales Manager of Baker Hughes and Dimitrios Simeonidis from Young Leaders in Energy and Sustainability.

The development of renewable energy sources in the Caspian region, and in particular in the Astrakhan region was highlighted in the speech of Denis Afanasyev, vice-chairman of the government of this region of the Russian Federation. And Rickard Wannby, Licensing Director at Topsoe, dedicated his speech to new decarbonization technologies.

This was followed by a question and answer session with the participation of media representatives and other delegates.

The plenary session of the forum began with an official greeting from President of Turkmenistan Serdar Berdimuhamedov, which was read by Deputy Prime Minister Batyr Amanov.

The Future of Global Energy - this is the title of the plenary session, which brought together the leadership of the Turkmen fuel and energy complex, key leaders of global energy companies, who will present a strategic vision for the development of this sector in the context of the global green energy transition.

The meeting is moderated by the head of the OSCE Center in Ashgabat, John McGregor. Among the speakers are Chairman of the Turkmengas State Corporation Maksat Babayev, Executive Director for Low-Carbon Solutions and International Development of ADNOC Musabbe Al-Kaabi, President of SOCAR Rovshan Najaf, President of SPE 2023 Medhat M. Kamal, Vice President for the Caspian Region of Baker Hughes Elena Akoltseva, regional vice president of finance at BP and the already mentioned Dario Liguti. CNPC President Hou Qijun will join the Ashgabat forum online. In addition, the European Commissioner for Energy, Kadri Simson, sent a video message to the participants.

According to the organizers, the current energy forum pursues more ambitious goals than previous ones. Its objectives are not focused exclusively around energy topics and cover a wide range of issues related to renewable energy and climate.

The high interest in OGT 2023 and the authoritative status of the event is evidenced by the participation of such high-ranking officials as Minister of Electricity of the Republic of Iraq Zeyad Ali Fadhil, Deputy Minister of Energy and Water Resources of Tajikistan Sharif Khudobakhsh, and the heads of more than twenty large energy companies: SOCAR, Dragon Oil, CNPC, PETRONAS, PEL Limited, Siemens Energy, Total Energies, Baker Hughes, Schlumberger, LX International, Yug-Neftegaz Private Limited, etc.

The broad range of issues at the forefront of OGT 2023 will be discussed over the next four sessions of the conference: “Meeting the energy needs of today while investing in the energy systems of tomorrow: natural gas and petrochemicals, oil and petrochemicals”; “Environmental aspects of hydrocarbon production”; “Accelerating efforts to monetize and diversify new energy resources”; "Technological innovation and the role of human capital in providing clean and affordable energy."

The event is organized by the State Concerns “Turkmengas”, “Turkmenneft”, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Turkmenistan and the State Corporation “Turkmengeology” in partnership with the Economic Organization “Turkmen Forum” with the support of the British company GaffneyCline.

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