The Regional Association of Oil, Gas and Biofuels Sector Companies in Latin America and the Caribbean (ARPEL) had an active participation at the latest edition of the World Petroleum Congress (WPC) held June 15-19 in Moscow, Russia. The Executive Secretary of ARPEL, Jorge Ciacciarelli, was invited to participate as the main speaker at the session entitled "How to improve the image of the industry”.

During the presentation entitled "Continuous improvement and communications," Ciacciarelli referred to the commitment of all member companies and institutions of ARPEL to work in cooperation on continuous improvement, and to the role of the association as a vehicle of communication of the progress and achievements of the industry in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Galen Cobb, Vice President of Industry Relations of Halliburton, Katharina Gruenberg, UK representative at the WPC Youth Committee, and Erik Means, Editor in Chief of Upstream, were present at the special session, which was moderated by Ulrike von Lonski, Director of Communications of the WPC.

Miguel Moyano, Upstream Director of ARPEL, participated as moderator of the round table entitled "What do we need for new geographic frontiers?".  

The panelists were Jay Pryor, Vice President of Business Development, Chevron; David Martin, Executive Vice President of HSE and Social Performance, Shell Upstream International; Sandra Martínez, Corporate HSE and Community Relations Manager of Pluspetrol Argentina and Chair of the Social Responsibility Committee of ARPEL; and Dr. Sun Xiansheng, President of the CNPC Economics and Technology Research Institute of China.

The debate focused on technological development and the importance of the involvement with local communities, in order to enable safe and responsible exploration and production from these new frontiers.

Panelists discussed how the industry should get involved with the local population to respect and address its current concerns and priorities from the earliest stages of exploration through to production and completion of projects.

"The appointment of ARPEL by the WPC as moderator of the session and the participation of two member companies as panelists represents an important recognition of over 20 years of work of the Association on sustainability issues. This result has been possible thanks to the efforts undertaken by the ARPEL Social Responsibility Committee and Environment, Health and Safety Committee," stated Moyano.

He further said that the participation of ARPEL at the round table "was an excellent opportunity to exchange different management approaches used around the world and understand how this exchange can improve the performance of the industry through cooperation".

ARPEL also participated in the World Petroleum Congress acting as official jury in the awards to international companies for their Social Responsibility plans.

Moreover, ARPEL had the opportunity to share a stand with the Uruguayan Delegation to the WPC.

"Taking into account the magnitude of the challenges faced by the industry, the activities regarding the positioning and consolidation of the industry that ARPEL has been developing are fully confirmed after almost 50 years of uninterrupted work, which gives us impetus to continue along the same path for another 50 years," concluded Ciacciarelli.