The 1st WPC Youth Forum, the first youth-oriented WPC activity since the founding of WPC 71 years ago, took place in Beijing on October 17-20, 2004. Altogether 541 representatives (under the age of 35) from 40 countries attended the forum: 282 foreign representatives and 259 Chinese representatives. Fifty-six observers from 17 WPC member countries and 102 adult companions from 18 countries attended this forum as special guests. The Forum was successful, and it received overall praise.

Right after returning to London from the Youth Forum, WPC general secretary Perce Riemer sent a telegram to the Chinese National Committee of WPC. The telegram reads, “Great thanks to you for organizing such a grand activity. Everything went better than expected.” This forum will certainly have a strategic influence on the sustainable development of China’s oil industry. The important achievements of the Forum are summarized as the following:

This Forum intensively publicized WPC and the oil industry and fulfilled the mission better than expected.

The original purpose of holding WPC Youth Forum was to attract more young people to take part in the activities of WPC and to devote themselves to the world oil industry. In January 2003, the Executive Committee of WPC held a meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa. When discussing the strategies for the sustainable development of WPC, the Committee proposed that WPC should attract more young people, especially young women, to take part in WPC activities and to be involved in the development of the oil industry. Thus, Dr. Wang Tao, WPC Senior Vice Chairman, proposed holding WPC Youth Forum. All members present at the meeting agreed with this proposal. In June 2003, WPC Executive Committee held a meeting in Moscow; the Chinese National Committee put forward a deliberate framework concerning WPC Youth Forum and expressed the willingness to host the 1st WPC Youth Forum. In December 2003, during the 2nd WPC regional meeting in Doha, Qatar, after careful discussion, WPC Council held a conference and approved the plans to hold the 1st WPC Youth Forum. The Chinese National Committee was entrusted to be the host. And the theme of the 1st WPC Youth Forum was agreed to be “Youth and Innovation — the Future of Petroleum Industry”.
The Forum implemented the strategic intent of WPC. There were a variety of thematic activities that were attractive to young people. At the forum those young people gained more knowledge of WPC and of the world oil industry. Especially, they learned more about the present status and role of the oil industry in the development of the economy and society. Those people were deeply impressed with the prospects of the oil industry. They decided to devote themselves to the oil industry. Consequently, more young people were attracted to attend WPC activities and intend to be engaged in the oil industry. The active participation of the youth will certainly make the oil industry vigorous and hopeful in the future. In this sense, the 1st youth forum of WPC fulfilled its mission and made a strategic achievement.

The Forum constructed a platform for the youth to demonstrate their talents and provided an opportunity for senior managers in the oil industry to discover and select excellent young talents.

The future of the world oil industry belongs to the youth. This Forum received 346 submissions covering a variety of majors. Fifty-two were orally presented at technical sessions.One hundred eighty-three were exhibited as posters.In addition,more than 100 innovation achievements were also presented. About a thousand people attended the activities at the Forum; some even came for several times. In those activities, many young people demonstrated their knowledge, talents and abilities. The exchange inspired the young people’s thirst for knowledge and progress. They treasured the platform on which they could demonstrate their ability, and they cherished the chance by which they could learn and make progress. Some people observed, “It is my first time to attend such an important forum. I learned a lot. What I have learned here will definitely influence my life.” Some people become more confident in life after attending this Forum. To them, “Courageous participation means the successful beginning of my career.”

To organize group discussions, the Organizational Committee invited 24 participants as the chairmen, 12 from foreign countries and 12 from China. All of them are under 35 years old. They organized these academic exchanges with great passion. After the discussion, they carefully selected 12 excellent papers. In this way, the Forum trained the organizational ability of the young people.

By attending this Forum, managers from the oil industry felt the vigorousness of those young people, observed their performances and had the chance to communicate with them face to face. During the Forum, the representatives of some companies received several or even over ten young people who were willing to be devoted to the company. These mangers commented, “This Forum provided a good chance for us to select young talent”.

The Forum provided a chance for experts and young people to discuss hot topics in the oil industry.

At the Forum, eight experts were invited to give lectures. In those lectures, the experts described the current status and future development of the upstream and downstream businesses in the oil and gas industry. They analyzed the supply and demand of oil in the world and discussed related strategies. Also, they introduced the application and development of high techniques in the oil industry, stressing the harmonious relation between oil and environment and the responsibilities that the oil industry should shoulder in the process of development. These wonderful reports received long applauses and active responses from the audience. The young representatives raised some questions and actively discussed some difficult issues with these learned scholars. Many young representatives observed that at this Forum they gained a lot and got to know a lot about what they did not know in the past.

Young people from the petroleum circle and related circles met in Beijing. They became friends and built up a base for international communication and coo-peration in the future.

The 1st WPC Youth Forum provided a good setting for young people to make friends. Nearly 1000 young people from China and foreign countries met in Beijing, including over 500 participants, nearly 100 volunteers and visitors of papers and science-technology innovation achievements. Full of vigor and passion, they got to know each other, communicate face to face and learn from each other. Some even became good friends. Today, with the advanced technology of information, a global network for international communication and cooperation in the oil industry will be established soon. Undoubtedly, this Forum will have a positive effect on the development of the world oil industry.

The success of the 1st WPC Youth Forum may be attributed to several factors.
First are the conspicuous theme and the series of activities attractive to and suitable for the youth.

The theme of this Forum was “Youth and Innovation — the Future of Oil Industry”. This theme not only contained a clear strategic intention, but also had a profound meaning. It clearly stated that the sustainable development of the oil industry in the future depends on the youth, and the drive for the development of the oil industry lies in the continuous innovation of technology and management. Young people are the most innovative of all ages; therefore, this theme had irresistible attraction to young people from the oil industry and those from related circles.

This conspicuous theme led to a clear and definite guideline for the conference. A series of academic thematic discussions and activities were designed to suit the thirst of young people for knowledge. Those discussions and activities covered the topics that young people cared about, such as the future development of the oil industry, the trend of the supply and demand of oil, the relationship between oil and environment, and the combination of oil and high technology. In addition, papers were collected from young people; experts were invited to make speeches, papers and science-technology achievements were exhibited; excellent papers were selected; a party was held. All the activities were warmly welcomed by the young people and aroused their eagerness for to participate the Forum and to demonstrate their talents.

Second is sufficient preparation.

In December 2003, WPC Council approved the plan to hold the 1st WPC Youth Forum and entrusted the Chinese National Committee as the host. Then the Chinese National Committee for WPC decided to form a preparation group for the Forum. The group mainly consisted of the staff from the editorial department of the World Oil Industry, the journal of the Chinese National Committee for WPC. A lot of careful preparation had been made in less than ten months. The preparatory tasks included editing and posting more than 10,000 copies of material to publicize the Youth Forum, Beijing and China through the website of the Chinese National Committee for WPC; contacting sponsors and raising money for the Forum; informing and inviting the members of WPC and all giant companies in the world; collecting papers from young people in all oil industries in the world; inviting learned scholars; most importantly, designing a series of activities fit for young people and planning the opening ceremony, reports, academic exchanges, exhibitions of papers and science-technology achievements and the closing party. The design was elaborate, ranging from important activities like the opening ceremony to trifles like making name plates and purchasing refreshments. The success of the Forum showed that the plan established an important base for all activities.

The third factor that contributes to the success of the Forum was the effective organization.

A practical problem occurred for young people to attend the Forum. Those young people who started working not long before did not have enough money to pay for the cost. Young students had even more financial difficulties. To solve this problem, the Committee decided to charge the attendants the lowest registration fee, which was only one-fourth the registration fee of WPC. Apart from that, the Committee also tried to persuade enterprises into offering the young people some financial support. PetroChina, Sinopec, CNOOC and Sinochem all contribute a lot to the success of this Forum. Three hundred thirty-five young people, including 198 foreign representatives and 137 Chinese representatives, were charged little or no registration fee. Thirty-five foreign and Chinese representatives were offered free meals. As a result, more young people were able to attend the Forum.

Based on the experience of organizing the 15th session of WPC in Beijing and the 1st regional conference in Shanghai, PetroChina, Sinopec, CNOOC and Sinochem formed a headquarter for the 1st Youth Forum of WPC at the proposal of CNOOC. People sent by these four companies and those volunteers from China University of Petroleum devoted themselves to organizing the Forum. The effective measures of organization guaranteed the success of the Forum.

The fourth factor that contributed to the success of the Forum is a strong backup.
Although namely the Chinese National Committee for WPC was responsible for the preparation and organization of the Forum, PetroChina, Sinopec, CNOOC and Sinochem offered great support in manpower, in materials and in finance. They formed a strong backup for the Forum. In the whole process, these four companies all made great efforts to contribute to the 1st WPC Youth Forum for the good image of China’s oil and petrochemical industries and also for the international image of China.
(Translated by Liu Hong)