Bahrain-based GPIC won MEED 2011 Award for Environmental Excellence Award at a ceremony held in Dubai.
The competition was held in order to choose the best from among all quality projects built in the GCC during 2010 and was held in the presence of some 500 attendees, representing 80 companies from throughout the region.
The competition was the first of its kind hosted by the MEED Foundation which specializes in analysis of economic development projects in the GCC and throughout the Arab world, in order to encourage industrial development in all areas and to promote investment opportunities in the Gulf Arab states.
MEED has paid particular attention to projects which contribute to the preservation of the environment by reducing the amount of gas emissions released from industrial converter. At GPIC, there was a double benefit in that the methanol plant is also able to contribute to the benefits of this project by absorbing the carbon dioxide into its manufacturing process, allowing increased production without the need for extra energy to be added.
A committee representing various associations of Engineers in the Gulf Cooperation Council was involved in the process of selection of companies nominated for the award. After extensive deliberations, the winning companies were selected to be awarded by “MEED” for having the highest quality projects in the GCC countries, including the petrochemical industry.
The ceremony was attended by Ahmed Noor, Director of GPIC, who received the award on behalf of the Company.
On this occasion, the Vice-Chairman of the Board, Yusef Abdulrahman Al Zamil dedicated this award to the shareholders of GPIC; Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, as part of the meeting of the Board of Directors of the Company and the General Assembly meeting held on Wednesday, March 23, 2011.
The shareholders conveyed their sincere thanks and appreciation to the members of the executive management and all employees of the company for winning this distinguished award, which reflects the high levels of professionalism reached by the company. This approach helped to draw attention to the CDR project and the Company’s excellent products at both regional and global levels.
Abdulrahman Jawahery, the Company President, expressed his happiness at this achievement, alluding to the importance of this project and its benefits for both the environment and productivity. Jawahery also highlighted the Company’s great interest in all environmental aspects of production, stressing that the Company is one of the first petrochemical companies in the Middle East to use this modern technology.
Jawahery added that such projects confirm the ability of the Bahraini national workforce to achieve various environmentally sound projects and provide evidence of the trust placed by the Company in its workers. Their great professionalism and willingness to run future projects reiterates the Company’s intention to realise up its expansion plans as soon as possible.
Jawahery explained that the project, whose cost amounted to $55 million, was built in record time, within the planned 27 months, and was implemented by the Italian company Tecnimont and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries of Japan, in addition to the Company’s own projects team.
The plant extracts 450 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year, which is pumped directly to the manufacturing plants of urea and methanol, to increase their production by 30,000 metric tons per year and 44,000 metric tons per year, respectively, or metric 80 tons per day and 120 metric tons per day, respectively.
As a result of the fact that gas feedstock to this new project is a secondary product gas from the combustion process in the manufacture of methanol, it does not place any additional requirements on the overall amount of natural gas consumed at the complex.