The recent in-person staging of NEFTEGAZ, a trade fair for the Russian oil and gas industry, set an important signal for the entire international trade fair industry: 449 exhibitors from 23 countries once again made the trade fair an important live platform for all top decision-makers in the Russian oil and gas industry, despite the global impact of the COVID-19 crisis. This was made possible by a hygiene concept that had already been successfully tested and focused on the safety of all participants. NEFTEGAZ was organized by Messe Düsseldorf, together with its subsidiary Messe Düsseldorf Moscow and the leading Russian trade fair company Expocentre.
A total of 21,250 trade visitors took advantage of the event to meet face-to-face with their business partners and learn about pioneering technologies from exhibitors. “The joy of seeing each other in person at NEFTEGAZ and people-to-people encounters could be felt on all days of the tradeshow,” says Erhard Wienkamp (pictured left), managing director Operative Trade Fair Business at Messe Düsseldorf. “Our exhibitors were satisfied with the number of visitors and were even able to close numerous business deals. Compared to the last event before COVID-19, NEFTEGAZ 2021 was able to continue the success of previous years with 93 percent trade visitors. This is a very good result under the conditions of the ongoing pandemic and underlines the outstanding importance of the event for the industry.”
The 20th edition of NEFTEGAZ offered the entire product portfolio of equipment and machinery for the oil and gas industry on an exhibition area of 42,000 square meters, from machinery and equipment for the extraction and processing of oil and gas deposits, offshore technology, transport and storage of oil and gas to measurement technology, safety systems and control procedures for environmental monitoring and occupational safety. Exhibitors included medium-sized and smaller innovative companies as well as international industry giants such as Burintech, CPTDC, GAZPROM, Himprom, Kanex-Krohne Anlagen Export, Samson Controls, Transneft, TMK and URALS PIPE WORKS.
The National Oil and Gas Forum took place concurrently with NEFTEGAZ, discussing topics such as development of promising technologies for the production of hydrogen and a corresponding strategy in the context of economic growth and international cooperation. New technologies for the production and maintenance of valves for the oil and gas industry as well as current Russian LNG projects were also on the agenda. The Forum was organized by the Russian Ministry of Energy, the sponsor of NEFTEGAZ. The trade visitors, who mainly came from Russia as well as the neighboring CIS countries, thus additionally benefited from a comprehensive conference program on current trends in the industry.
The next staging of NEFTEGAZ will be held April 18 – 21, 2022, at the Expocentre exhibition center in Moscow. For further information on visiting or exhibiting at the next staging of NEFTEGAZ 2022, contact Messe Düsseldorf North America; Telephone: (312) 781-5180; E-mail: info@mdna.com. For more info, visit www.neftegaz-online.com and www.mdna.com.
Exhibitor Statements:
ARFLU S.A, Rene Treto Gonzalez, project manager, Russia and CIS says, “We have not participated in exhibitions in Russia for a long time, for about five years, and decided to take part this year. Due to the pandemic, few foreign companies were represented this time, which attracted the attention of customers to our company. The first two days were very busy. We were approached by both our traditional customers and partners and new ones. Everyone is very interested, we have the most positive impressions. Based on the results of the first two days, we can already say that results have already met our expectations. We definitely want to take part in the next NEFTEGAZ exhibition, because we participate in exhibitions in different cities of Russia: Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kazan, Ufa. We believe the Russian market is important.”
H. BUTTING GmbH, Christian Schenk, head of project sales says, “We are participating in many exhibitions in Brazil, in Norway, in China and all over the world. Where we exhibit depends on application of the material. We are a pipe manufacturer and we have to be present all over the world. And this is what we did in the past. Two years ago we decided that we want to have a presence in Russia and we found a partner with whom we were looking for possibilities for new business. We also decided, after having a partner, to participate in other exhibitions, but that was not very exciting so we decided to participate in the NEFTEGAZ exhibition. And what I can see here are companies from the oil, gas and chemical industry. I see the quality of the visitors. People are interested. People are coming. For me this is the success of the exhibition.”
KANEX Krohne Anlagen Export GmbH, Ekaterina Kurbanova, Head of Marketing Department says, “To be honest, we were not hoping for such a large number of visitors and, yes, the results met our expectations. It was the target customers who came to us. Due to the pandemic there is a lack of information and people are eager for this information. There are requests for information specifically about the equipment that we exhibit here but visitors are not just interested in what we have here. We are planning to take part in the next NEFTEGAZ exhibitions. For us NEFTEGAZ is the central event of every year and we cannot miss it.”
PIETRO FIORENTINI S.p.A., Dmitry Astashin, General Director says, “It is great that this is an offline event, after a series of online exhibitions and conferences. It is great to see people and colleagues live. It is great to see customers with your own eyes, and not by video conference. From this point of view, expectations were met. Obviously, our Italian colleagues were unable to come because of the pandemic and we hope that all this will end soon and the next exhibition will be held in a normal full-fledged format. We plan to participate again, because in previous years we have not missed a single event of this kind.”
SAMSON Controls OOO, Alexey Loginov, Deputy General Director says, “This is the first exhibition in two years, after a difficult year due to the pandemic. Of course, we did not expect any influx of new customers signing new contracts. In principle, the first two days were busy, all our existing customers were here, they were glad to see us, we were also glad to see them. Everyone missed face-to-face personal communication and it worked within the framework of this exhibition. We were also waiting for this exhibition in order to focus once again the attention of our customers and partners to the fact that we are now a Russian local manufacturer, and we succeeded. From this point of view, we are satisfied. Of course, I would like more new people, faces, questions, tasks, and so on. But I think that with time it will all come, everything will work out. In terms of organization, everything went well. For us, NEFTEGAZ is the main trade fair; we do not participate in other event but will be back for NEFTEGAZ.”
VDMA e.V., Sven Flasshoff, general director says, “I consider it a great success that the exhibition took place. Russia and China are the only countries currently hosting industrial exhibitions. The Germans are very happy that Russia has opened the border. Our German colleagues had the opportunity to attend this exhibition, to confirm that the exhibitions are live here. I like that today is the third day and there are a lot of visitors at the show. Last year I attended various exhibitions in Moscow, but they had a little less visitors, a little less participants. Now everyone has become a little more active attending exhibitions, people want to communicate in person, everyone is tired of online events. The German Ministry of Economy supports this trend and constantly allocates money for German pavilions all over the world, including Russia. This is also very good. My impression is that the people who participate here in the German Pavilion are very pleased.”
VEGA Grieshaber KG, Alexander Trofimychev, development director says, “We are very pleased with our participation in NEFTEGAZ. The result from the exhibition exceeded all our expectations. I liked the organization of the exhibition. We plan to take part in the next staging of the exhibition.”
