Minister of Energy patronises second workshop on carbon management in the oil and gas sector

Under the patronage of Minister of Energy His Excellency Dr. Abdul Hussain bin Ali Mirza, the National Oil and Gas Authority (NOGA) in collaboration with United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) for West Asia organized a second workshop on Carbon management in the oil and gas sector in the Kingdom of Bahrain’ on May 25-26 at the NOGA office in Bahrain Financial Harbour.

The workshop comes following the directives of the wise leadership and directions of H.E. Dr. Mirza on the need for initiatives to start examining priorities for reducing greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) in relevant sectors in preparation for the implementation of the Paris Agreement, which was agreed upon in 2015.

The Minister delegated the NOGA General Secretary and Dr. Ahmed Ali Al Sharyan to open the specialist workshop.

In his opening speech, Dr. Al Sharyan praised the positive cooperation between NOGA and UNEP, sealed by a memorandum of understanding signed on May 19 last year.

He said it was clear the oil sector was one of the most affected sectors as far as climate change was concerned, especially after the Paris Agreement. The climate change meet was attended by international delegations representing 176 countries, who celebrated the signing of the agreement at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, among whom were, as signatories, Bahrain and most Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. The agreement required signatories to climate change to adjust global warming to less than two degrees Celsius and to continue efforts to not exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius. It has become imperative for all countries around the world, including Bahrain, to commit to initiatives aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions by ‘Nationally Determined Contributions’ (NDCs) by year 2020, to be implemented in accordance with the certification of credit mechanism.

Dr. Al Sharyan expressed his pleasure that the greenhouse gases (GHGs) inventory process was on and also an integrated system was being prepared to manage carbon emissions, which embodied the foundation stone of Bahrain’s prioritization in cutting down carbon and preparing an integrated strategy to climate change.

Concluding his speech, the General Secretary thanked the workshop organizers from NOGA and UNEP. He said he hoped to see positive results from the workshop, in line with the Authority’s efforts to develop an integrated strategy based plans to deal with climate change for the oil sector. He expressed his appreciation to all oil companies under the NOGA umbrella for their keen cooperation and encouraging participation in the workshop.

Dr. Majeed Al Haddad, Regional Coordinator - Climate Change in the UNEP (West Asia) for liaising between the UNEP and NOGA in the interests of concerned parties and strengthening coordination at international forums, reviewing the stages of development right up to the signing of memorandum of understanding, last year. He underlined the importance of a workshop to creation of qualified cadres to prepare emission inventories and preparing a program for the management of carbon at oil companies, stressing at the same time that these cadres will not be actors for the oil sector alone, but for other national programs in the Kingdom of Bahrain as well.