Editor's Letter

• Comments
• Send to a Friend
• Print

Crisis Got You Down? Join OGE’s African Oil Safari and Explore New Markets

     Well, here it is MIOGE time again. Usually this time of year I write about the state of the oil and gas industry and often my column is shameless boosterism. But this year, I’m not sure what to boost. At the risk of revealing my age, I think of the market these days as a “Keystone Cops” movie.

   That’s a classic Charlie Chaplin silent-film comedy that my grandparents watched in the 1920s at the movie theater. The memorable gag routine involved a police car that would stop, and then five or six policemen would jump out, run around the car several times, and then they would get back in and drive off. About five minutes later, the scene would repeat.

   What’s the connection? Honestly, I can’t really understand how in 2008, the price of oil was going up, up, up, eventually hitting nearly $150 a barrel, then just as quickly, in 2009 the price went down, down, down.  Russia has wiped out nearly half of the half of the currency reserves it built up in the good times but, “viola”, in mid-June Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller was telling a conference in Italy that the oil price would return to $85 a barrel by December.

   If you visit www.cbsnews.com and do a search for the CBS 60 Minutes report, “The Price of Oil”, you’ll get an interesting view on how Wall Street speculation created the bubble, not economic fundamentals. Check it out, it’s an eye opener. I also ask those of you who were in Russia in the 1990s to think back to the MMM scandal. Write me at p.szymczak@eurasiapress.com and tell me what’s different between that and what is happening in the market today. Not much, it’s just on a global scale and has a civilized, politically-correct candy coating.

   But like it or not, those of us who are low on the food chain need to just weather the storm. And if Gazprom’s CEO is right, maybe the clouds are parting a bit, to let in some sunshine.
Take Russia’s drilling market for example. Oil&Gas Eurasia this month interviews a principal in a new rig manufacturing firm which was literally born out of the crisis – Discovery Drilling. Discovery raised money to buy IDM’s West Ukrainian plant when the crisis pushed IDM out of the market. And guess what? There is plenty of business to be done as Russian companies that froze budgets earlier in the year, are now approving those same budgets for the second half of 2009.
For MIOGE, Oil&Gas Eurasia’s cover story focuses on the “greener” side of the Russian oil and gas industry. This spring, many of our readers followed our daily coverage on www.oilandgaseurasia.com by OGE staff writer Alexsei Chesnokov of the VNIIGAZ road rally from Moscow to Sochi. Chesnokov rode 1,780 kilometers, together with VNIIGAZ specialists and other experts. The convoy stopped in Rostov, Krasnodar and Novorossysk along the way to demonstrate the value of switching to natural gas as a vehicle fuel. VNIIGAZ General Director Roman Samsonov told a press conference in Rostov that he had argued in his university dissertation 25 years ago that natural gas could be a clean, low-cost fuel to power locomotives.
Also worth mentioning is our focus on ecological issues as they affect the Nordstream pipeline project. Refrigerators on the bottom of the Baltic Sea? That’s not all that’s being found!
As for Oil&Gas Eurasia news, we’ve got plenty. So I hope that at MIOGE you will visit our stand to talk with our sales staff about the many opportunities that OGE offers for building your brand in Russia and the CIS. Find us in Pavillion 2, Hall 1, Stand No. 2109.

   Besides being No. 1 in qualified circulation of any b2b oil and gas publication in the Russian federation and CIS, Oil&Gas Eurasia is growing as a company to offer new services outside of Russia to our globally minded Russian customers.

   For example, if you are a Russian company that wants to stop moaning about the crisis and do something about it, you might want to join OGE’s African Safari. We’re proud to announce that we have recently agreed a strategic partnership with Petroleum Africa magazine in Cairo. OGE now represents Petroleum Africa in Russia for advertising sales and soon we will be announcing exciting news in the events arena. That means that Russian oil and gas producers, service companies and equipment manufacturers need only call our Moscow sales office at +7 (495) 781 8836 to begin their quest to develop business links in Africa .

   Petroleum Africa is the leading oil and gas magazine on the African continent with circulation targeted into national oil companies and independent operators throughout all of Africa, north to south. If Africa interests you, I highly recommend that you subscribe to PA in print, and register for PA’s weekly e-mail newsletter. You can do both by visiting www.petroleumafrica.com.

   Oil&Gas Eurasia is equally proud to have been designated General Media Sponsor of the Russian Arctic Offshore (RAO) CIS Conference&Exhibition September 15-18 in St. Petersburg. OGE will be producing a conference daily newspaper for this every-two-year event. And copies of Oil&Gas Eurasia’s Special Offshore Edition will be included in all delegate bags. Russia’s premiere offshore event, RAO CIS Offshore draws top management of Gazprom, Rosneft, Lukoil, Zarubezhneftegaz and their foreign and domestic partners and suppliers. We invite you to email sales@eurasiapress.com to check out the many marketing opportunities we offer.
On the Recruitment front, Oil&Gas Eurasia this spring began a recruitment section in both our print magazine and on line. I invite you to review the terms and conditions listed in the recruitment section of our MIOGE edition and to call our office for more detail.

   And don’t forget that Oil&Gas Eurasia is still the only publication in Russia and the CIS to offer advertisers audited proof of its circulation claims. OGE has been BPA audited since 2005 and now also delivers nearly 50,000 page impressions per month and climbing on our bilingual website, www.oilandgaseurasia.com. I hope that as the recession eases you will take time to research the value that audited media offers.

   OGE’s credibility and proven delivery of a targeted audience of petroleum specialists in Russia and the Caspian is why the SPE (Society of Petroleum Engineers) Russia and Caspian Region recently designated Oil&Gas Eurasia as its marketing partner in the region. Read more about the SPE in our June issue.

And meanwhile, enjoy MIOGE!

• Comments
• Send to a Friend
• Print