We are pleased to announce that this year the Ignacy Łuksiewicz Museum of Oil and Gas Industry in Bóbrka celebrates its 60th anniversary of foundation. On this occasion, and in relation to the events planned for 2022, when we will celebrate the 200th anniversary of Ignacy Łukasiewicz birth, we would like to organize an international conference held on 29-30 September 2021, together with ICOMOS Poland, mainly dedicated to the history of the oil industry.

The beginnings of the oil industry were rather humble. In the mid-19th century, in several parts of the world, talented inventors and traders took similar steps began to extract and process oil more and more efficiently. Extraction and refining technologies developed rapidly and reached an enormous global scale. The great importance of the oil industry in the development of our civilization makes it fully justified to preserve the heritage documenting its beginnings and development. Moreover, it is appropriate to honor it by inscribing it on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

The aim of the conference, which we have entitled: „Beginning of Oil Industry on UNESCO WH List” is to present museum sites documenting the history of the oil industry, but also to discuss the possibility of developing a serial nomination to the UNESCO World Heritage List representing the beginnings of the oil industry. Such a nomination has merit, as the oil industry developed at a similar time in several centers. It is our wish that the presentations of the lectures will be made in three, thematic sessions:

Session 1. The beginnings of the oil industry – the history of development
Session 2. Museums of the Oil Industry – organization and presentation
Session 3. Beginning of Oil Industry on WH List – preparation and conception of nomination

We kindly invite you to submit your lectures and send materials about your institutions on the basis of which the poster session will be organized. Bearing in mind that the time is difficult and due to the epidemiological threat not all interested people will be able to participate in the stationary conference, this may be the only way to present petroleum museology.

The conference will be held in the hybrid formula (possible participation in a stationary or online).

We kindly ask you to fill up the attached „Application for Participation” and provide your speech proposals (the application form can also be found on our official website www.bobrka.pl under the „Conference” website tab). Please return the fulfilled application form by June 14, 2021 to konferencja@bobrka.pl.

After thematic analysis of the registrations, a detailed conference program will be constructed and sent to you. All lectures presented during the conference will be published in a special publication.

Conference Program

The ORLEN Group is the largest company in Central and Eastern Europe, listed in prestigious global rankings such as Fortune Global 500. The ORLEN Group operates on 6 home markets – in Poland, the Czech Republic, Germany, Lithuania, Slovakia and Canada. The concern has modern, integrated assets capable of processing over 35 million tonnes of various types of crude oil per year, and retail sales are carried out using the largest network of over 2,800 petrol stations in the region of Central and Eastern Europe. ORLEN is the most valuable Polish brand, valued at nearly PLN 10 billion.