The conference

The Conference took place at the Conrad Hotel in Punta del Este, Uruguay, on April 21-24. It counted with more than 300 participants from oil & gas companies, industry’s goods and services suppliers, international organizations, financial institutions, non-governmental organizations and universities of the region. From the total number of delegates, more than 180 were from 23 countries of the region and outside it, with 50 companies represented and 20 sponsors.

On April 21, the 8 ARPEL Committees met and the ARPEL portal was re-launched. On April 22, 7 simultaneous seminars and 2 courses were held, as well as the meeting of the Integration Team with the Board of Directors for the strategic update of the 2007-2015 Association’s guidelines. This strategic update took into account the impact of the global financial crisis and the analysis of the topic made by the ARPEL Committees on April 21 and the companies’ high executives with the Board of Directors during a lunch on April 22. On April 23-24, 9 conferences, 4 plenary panels and 8 round tables were developed on topics such as energy security, oil & gas industry overview, human rights and ethics, corporate governance and transparency, impact of the global financial crisis in the industry and the region, human assets & industry, climate change & energy efficiency, advances & challenges of industry environmental management among others.

The next ARPEL Conference will take place on April 5th-8th 2011, in Punta del Este.

Conclusions

At the closing ceremony, José Félix García, ARPEL Executive Secretary, pointed out the high participation in the event and that from the more of 300 participants, 120 were from the hard core of ARPEL who met during the first work day to evaluate and progress in their programs, analyze the impact of the global financial crisis in the region’s energy industry and the re-launching of the ARPEL portal. It was the first time that all the Committees met in the same day.

He highlighted the opportunity to make a strategic update of the Association taking into consideration the crisis and the new emerging topics with the Committees and the chairmen, high executives and ARPEL directors, sharing the more relevant aspects of the analysis during the meeting of the Integration Team (composed by the chairmen of the ARPEL Committees).   In this context he emphasized the assessment made by the ARPEL Energy Integration Committee on the change of the Committee’s focus to topics more related to the sector’s development and the Regional Energy Agenda.

Lastly he underlined the great value given to the conference participants as well as the opportunity for an intense work internally to the Association.

The Chairman of the ARPEL Board of Directors, Milton Costa Filho, expressed that the event was of worldwide high level and surpassed the expectations of the Association, achieving a high participation from the region and underlined the fact that its organization was made in “a hard and special moment but also a moment for opportunities.”

On the other hand, he pointed out that “the effort made by the oil & gas companies to organize the conference was very appropriate for the present situation and all the topics of a sustainable development agenda were covered”. Energy efficiency, climate change, value chain and social issues were discussed in this event. At this moment of financial crisis one of the possible scenarios is a social crisis and this is a “call to the social responsibility of our companies in ethics, transparency and the attention to human rights”, said Costa Filho.

He emphasized the way the topics were analyzed looking for the promotion of best practices and the interchange of practical experiences that ARPEL has promoted since its creation.

He announced next and important actions resulting from this event as the organization of a workshop on costs reduction in the several areas of industry, (one of the topics more discussed during the conference) as well as the creation of a committee to work aspects related to human development, training, technology & innovation and intercultural matters. Finally he stated the opportunity to develop an energy agenda for the region in which all players will be consulted.

The Chairman of ANCAP, Raúl Sendic, said that for the state company, the government, and the country, it was a great honor to have this meeting in Punta del Este. “With no doubt during the meeting’s development we reasserted the idea –Uruguayans know that I am a high defender of renewable energy – that for several decades oil will continue being the main worldwide energy source. Accordingly, the world’s need to have sustainable environs from all points of view will require that we put on the table with a lot of strength the agenda that we have discussed”. Energy security, human rights, ethics, attention to the climate change, work towards energy efficiency, better management of knowledge,  relations with society and benefits, are topics of the agenda that shoe the need the world has for this energy source to be truly sustainable. “We all continue working in the search for renewable energy, but only taking into account the agenda, the insertion of the oil industry in the worldwide energy needs will be sustainable” commented the executive.

He emphasized that even though the situation of uncertainty and difficulties, the fall of the oil price and the financial situation, sooner than later the world will start to recover and will   have to be prepared for the energy demand.

 “It will gradually start to go out of this situation and it cannot happen that the energy supply curbs sustainable development. This is why we have to develop for tomorrow needs, if industry does not make the investment today, the world will not have the energy it needs to grow. So energy would become a privilege and that is not what oil industry wants”. According to Sendic, the support of investments is responsibility of governments, industry and financial institutions that should understand this situation.

Finally he stated his hope that oil exploration can be developed in Uruguay, in some of the 11 blocks that were bid in the 2009 Uruguay Round.

We would like to express from these lines, our deep gratitude to all those that contributed with their dedication and work to the success of this first Conference.

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