St Petersburg hosts the International Gas Forum, which brings together more than 50 countries and 25 thousand participants. This year the Forum has set a record for the number of events and speeches by government officials, business people, scientists and experts. Several hundred companies demonstrate advanced equipment and technologies on the 50,000 square metre Expoforum site.

Dagestan is represented by Marat Shikhaliev, the Minister of Energy and Tariffs of the Republic. The head of the regional ministry has already participated in a panel discussion on "The development of the domestic gas market and the gasification of Russian regions" at a meeting of the State Council's Commission on Energy.

Participants at the meeting discussed the growth of natural gas consumption on the domestic market through gasification programs and the promotion of liquefied natural gas (LNG) use in transportation.