His Excellency Shaikh Mohammed bin Khalifa
Al-Khalifa, the Minister of Oil, opened Monday morning, 23 January 2017 at the
Ritz Carlton, Bahrain, the Middle East Refining Technology Conference, which
was organized by the World Refining Association, in collaboration and
coordination with the National Oil and Gas Authority (NOGA) and the support and
patronage of Bahrain Petroleum Company (BAPCO), international oil companies and
prominent participation by experts, specialists, and managers of companies
engaged in oil refining, as well as stakeholders interested in refining
technology and research and academia community.
His
Excellency the Minister of Oil expressed appreciation and gratitude for
selection of the Kingdom of Bahrain for hosting this event for the first time
on the Kingdom's territory thanks to the good reputation that the Kingdom
enjoys across the world in organizing conferences and specialized functions in
this vital field. His Excellence warmly welcomed all participants in this
significant technological event and hoped that they would benefit from the
scientific papers to be presented and discussed during the various sessions of
the conference and explore the state of the art and sophisticated technologies
featured in the exhibition organized in tandem with the conference.
Several
topics were presented and discussed during the sessions of the conference with
more than 250 participants who addressed a host of topics related to refining,
future technologies and the strategic projects intended to upgrade and promote
the standards of the refineries, especially as the Kingdom of Bahrain is bent
on the execution of a refinery upgrade project to increase its production from
260,000 barrels a day to 360,000 barrels a day. The modernization project will
also involve production of environmentally friendly and value added clean
products. The conference will also address and discuss the carbon emissions
management technologies, regional projects, growth plans, talent strategies,
optimal investments on development research, commercial utilization thereof,
integration of opportunities in the fields of refining and petrochemicals, 2030
Saudi Vision and the National Transformation Program. All these topics will be
discussed by globally renowned experts and specialists of more than 40 keynote
speakers.
His
Excellency Shaikh Mohammed bin Khalifa Al-Khalifa highlighted the fact that the
National Oil and Gas Authority is quite keen to execute the directives of the
wise political leadership relative to the need and importance of taking the
initiative and review of the priorities of reduction of green gas emissions in
the various sectors in preparation for implementation of Paris Agreement which
was adopted in Paris in 2015. He further stated that the National Oil and Gas
Authority is currently bent on preparing its strategy on climate change
considering the fact that the oil sector is the sector that is most impacted by the climate change issues
particularly after the climate change agreement reached in the French
cosmopolitan in the year 2015 where global delegations representing 176 states,
including the Kingdom of Bahrain. Most of the GCC states participated in the
signature celebrations at the United Nations' premises in New York. The Paris
Agreement on Climate Change requires its signatory parties to seek to control
the rise in global temperature within much less than two degrees centigrade,
coupled with sustained effort to hit the target of 1.5 degrees centigrade,
thereby requiring all countries of the world, including the Kingdom of Bahrain,
to submit their commitments and initiatives for reduction of the green gas
emissions by the year 2020 based on the Nationally Determined Contributions
(NDCs).
The National Oil and Gas Authority is in the
process of setting up a carbon management registry system for the oil sector in
the Kingdom of Bahrain in collaboration with its subsidiaries. It is fully
prepared to identify and calculate separately the volumes of green gases of the
oil sector for all companies attached to the Authority. It is also working on
the execution of increment of two of the gas emission mitigation options in
addition to organizing a workshop of carbon harvesting, exploitation and
storage, besides other future events and functions, such as the Middle East 20th
Oil Conference and Exhibition, the Middle East Operations Engineering
Conference and Exhibition (MEPEC 2017) which are regularly held every two years
in the Kingdom of Bahrain under the patronage of His Royal Highness the Prime
Minister.
In Conclusion, His Excellency Shaikh Mohammed
bin Khalifa Al-Khalifa, the Minister of Oil, expressed his thanks and gratitude
to the World Refining Association, the Consulting Committee of this specialized
conference which was set up from senior officials of a number of national, Gulf
and international companies, including the National Oil and Gas Authority, the
Oil and Gas Holding Company, Bahrain Petroleum Company (BAPCO), SABIC, Saudi
ARAMCO, SADARAH Company, all sponsors of this event, including CBA Company,
Chevron, Lumos Global Company (the golden sponsor), Fluor and Floss (the silver
sponsor), as well as the exhibitors, all keynote speakers and the audience. He
wished all a successful conference and realization of the objectives they
sought.
His Excellence also opened the accompanying
exhibition and met with a number of exhibitors who displayed their best
achievements in modern refining technologies, including CH2m Company, Exxon
Mobil Company, AGRICO Company, Chevron Company, Lumos Global Company, Fluor
Company, Albemarle Company, in addition to Bahrain Petroleum Company (BAPCO),
JERAISY Company and a number of other international companies.