Dear Colleagues & Friends of the WPC

As President of the WPC I would like to welcome you to the 7th edition of our Youth Forum and thank our hosts in Kazakhstan for their support of this important event.

The World Petroleum Council, aware of the importance of providing young professionals and students with the significant role they deserve, launched the 1st WPC Youth Forum in China in 2004, and since then our Young Professionals Committee has grown to include representatives from 25 countries who work hard to develop the programme for this important industry event.

I believe that younger generations working in this industry play a key role for the future of the oil and gas sector. Specifically, on the one hand, the demand for the continuous improvement of our quality standards in terms of social responsibility and, on the other hand, in the dissemination of the benefits of our industry.

They have the opportunity to demand continuous improvement in the application of best practices in environmental, corporate social responsibility and governance matters and to support those. Your role, skills and understanding make you more receptive to new social demands and quicker to assimilate them.

We must communicate better, and to achieve this only using traditional systems is not enough. More direct and personalised communication is needed. Social networks make this possible and this is where you have the greatest impact, being active on these channels, providing truthfulness to uninformed debates. This is one of the best ways to value participation in this industry and ensure that the evolution of the energy sector is completed from a realistic and responsible perspective. The Youth Forum in Almaty should be a milestone in this new positioning of young people working in our sector.
The slogan chosen for the Forum "Energy Transition, Dialogue of Generations" and the Youth Forum provides a platform for experts at all stages of their career to come together and exchange ideas.

This is an important time for the next generation to play a leading role in the transformation of the industry and explain to society how proud you are to work in a sector that is essential for human development, responsible in its approaches and generates wealth and well-being for society as a whole. I encourage you to do this actively and not only at the Almaty Forum, but also in your day-to-day conversations and social networks.
I wish you a very successful 7th WPC Youth Forum and look forward to participating and sharing ideas

Pedro Miras
President
World Petroleum Council