The Middle East Petrotech 2012 organising committee convened in Bahrain to conclude arrangements for the 8th Middle East Refining and Petrochemicals Conference and Exhibition, set to take place from 20 – 23 May 2012.
Held under the patronage of His Royal Highness the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Bahrain Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, this landmark event at the Bahrain International Exhibition and Convention Centre focuses attention on the technical and business challenges – and equally extensive opportunities – the Middle East faces in managing what have become the world’s most important energy reserves.
The committee, chaired by Saudi Aramco’s Vice President of Chemicals Abdulaziz M. Al-Judaimi, comprises of senior figures drawn from national and international oil companies and leading service industry providers active in the region. Representation includes Saudi Aramco, Axens, Borouge, Dow, GPIC, KNPC, Bapco, Petro Rabigh, PIC Kuwait, Qatar Petroleum, Shell, Total and UOP. Collectively, they ensure that the conference programme maintains its excellent technical focus and topical relevance, whilst highlighting activities in the region with their showcase stands at the exhibition.
The high level technical conference, which runs parallel to the exhibition of products and services, takes place this year under the theme ‘Creating Value: Technology, Investment and People’. The pace-setting agenda incorporates 14 executive keynote and plenary speakers, and more than 90 technical and poster presentations. Over 1,500 delegates are expected to attend the conference, which will thoroughly explore issues relating to refining and petrochemical technologies, plants of the future, human resources and HSE.
Bapco is a major sponsor of the event, and has played an active role in the Executive Committee as well as each of the four technical sub-committees.
“Bapco considers Petrotech as the premier downstream oil and gas conference, and hence we have always heavily supported the conference. The Executive Committee this year are very excited about the event and expect it to be bigger and better than ever. We are also reaching out to the next generation of oil and gas engineers and executives by sponsoring 40 engineering students from University of Bahrain, and we are also inviting school children to visit the NOGA exhibition stand and tour the exhibition each morning and afternoon of the conference,” Ebrahim Talib, Bapco Deputy Chief Executive (Refining and Marketing), said.
Bapco’s participation includes nine technical papers ranging from detailed process engineering and project engineering analysis, to process safety management, operational excellence, and also human resource management.
“It brings us great pride that the largest oil and gas downstream conference has made its home in the Kingdom of Bahrain. This year, we celebrate 80 years of oil in Bahrain, the first location oil was discovered in the GCC. The conference is also an opportunity for Bapco to showcase its strong technical expertise in the field and to share information and knowledge with others in the industry,” Gordon Smith, Bapco’s Chief Executive, said.
The National Oil and Gas Authority (NOGA) will have a large exhibition at the event, which will showcase the major downstream oil and gas companies under its umbrella, namely Bapco, GPIC and Banagas. Dr Abdul Hussain bin Ali Mirza, the Minister of Energy and Chairman of NOGA, has been a tremendous advocate of Petrotech since its inception, and has also provided significant support and assistance.
Dr Mirza will be a keynote speaker at the conference opening in the evening of Sunday 20 May 2012 which is expected to attract oil executives from all over the world and region. The latest hardware, services and technology will meanwhile go on display at the associated 5,400 square metre exhibition. In total, over 100 companies from more than 20 countries will be in attendance.