OREANDA-NEWS. ITERA International Group of Companies (IIGC) is acting as an official partner of the first National Oil and Gas Forum to be held in Moscow on March 19-21, 2013. The event is urged to become a new federal-scale debating platform to discuss key issues of the fuel and energy complex (FEC) in Russia.

ITERA is one of the larger natural gas producers in Russia. The Company established a joint venture with NK Rosneft last year for the two companies to join efforts in developing the gas business. ITERA is going to increase essentially the volume of gas production in the few next years to come for it to strengthen its position in the FEC market even farther. The Company is sure that its participation in the National Oil and Gas Forum will allow for developing an all-round and reliable estimate of the current situation in the oil and gas sector, as well as producing the better forecast for future developments in FEC.

The Forum is organized by the Ministry of Energy of Russia together with leading entrepreneurial and industry associations. Among those are: the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RUIE), the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Russia (CCIR), the Union of Oil and Gas Industrialists of Russia, the Russian Gas Society.

Participants in the Forum intend to discuss long-term objectives and tasks of the oil and gas industry, development of the market infrastructure of the energy sector, innovations and energy efficiency, analysis of the fiscal policy, creation of a competitive market environment, enhancement of forecasts hydrocarbons’ pricing in the world, the impact the volatility makes on macroeconomic indicators and foreign trade policy, ecological standards and industrial safety in the energy sector.

Igor Makarov, President of IIGC, stated as follows: "The gas industry is on the threshold of new trials related to conversion of markets of hydrocarbons. Therefore, it is very important now to understand what direction we are moving to and to simulate the industry development scenario. It is only a collective effort that may allow for a maximum exact forecast for prospects of the natural gas usage. The National Oil and Gas Forum serves us such a possibility today."

ITERA International Group of Companies is a vertically integrated holding company which includes dozens of enterprises and companies in CIS, Baltic countries, Western Europe, Asia and the USA. Gas business is a core business of ITERA since its inception in 1992. ITERA Oil and Gas Company, LLC, is a joint venture of OJSC NK Rosneft with a 51% stake, and Companies of ITERA International Group of Companies with a 49% shareholding, one of the largest independent producers and sellers of natural gas in Russia. The Company has been developing its own production of gas in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District since 1998. The Company has invested over USD 2 billion in development of the gas industry. Overall, over 250 billion cubic meters of gas was produced in gas fields developed by Itera. The total volume of gas sold is about 600 billion cubic meters. Development, gas processing and power generations are among strategic businesses of the Group, too.