The Conference attracted high level participation from the key ministries in the Russian Federation and the national and overseas oil and gas industry. Some 180 experts participated in the plenary sessions and in the separate workshops on safety and environmental protection.Two features of the environment workshop were the launch of the Environmental Guidelines for Arctic Operations, jointly developed by the E&P Forum and the World Conservation Union (IUCN), and the presentation by Mr SA Bourtsev, Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources, on the environmental review system in the Russian Federation. This paper contributed to a better understanding of the environmental regulatory requirements. Extracts from the summary diagrams are reproduced in the volume.The emphasis in the safety workshop was on 1) the importance of safety management systems to integrate safety equipment, human factors and management focus on safety, 2) the development of an improved understanding of ...