HRH Premier delegates Energy Minister to open MEPEC 2015

Manama

 Prime Minister HRH Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa delegated Minister of Energy Dr. Abdulhussain Mirza for opening the Third Middle East Process Engineering Conference (MEPEC 2015).

 The conference is hosted in the Kingdom under the patronage of HRH Premier.

 It is being held from September 15 to 17 by Bahrain Exhibition & Convention Authority (BECA) in cooperation with American Institute of Chemical Engineers, supported by Middle East Energy Events, and the National Oil and Gas Authority (NOGA), with an overwhelming participation from international, Gulf and Bahraini oil companies.

 The minister expressed his gratitude and appreciation to HRH the Prime Minister for his great support and encouragement to MEPEC 2015, and for patronising the series since its launch in 2011.

 He added it maintained its prestige in global forums as one of the leading specialists oil events to promote knowledge and expertise exchange among participating professionals, including a large number of engineers and technicians from various national, regional and global oil and gas companies.

 Dr. Mirza said he was pleased that MEPEC was being held in Bahrain for the third consecutive year.

 MEPEC had gained a high reputation among conferences promoting engineering operations and attracted a large turnout and growing participation from the Middle East region by exhibitors in the fields of energy, oil and gas, including global oil giants and prominent international institutions.

 Meanwhile, the minister, in his opening speech, congratulated HRH the Prime Minister on winning the prestigious International Telecommunication Union Award recently.

 He pointed out that the theme of the conference this year met the requirements of the more than 1,500 international delegates, out of which over 80 per cent were engineers and from technical disciplines.

 Dr. Mirza congratulated the recipients of the Leadership Excellence Awards for Women (LEWA) and the organising team led by Nabilah M. Al Tunisi for celebrating innovation, leadership, achievement and talent among women in the academic and business sectors of the oil industry in the oil and gas sector.

 The minister stressed the need for more engineering solutions to meet the diverse challenges in the field of process engineering.

 He said NOGA was implementing a number of vital projects supporting the development of the oil and gas sector in Bahrain.

 Among them were the Bahrain Refinery modernization project, a strategic project to upgrade GCC’s first refinery, established as early as 1936.

 The project would enhance its competitiveness, profitability and sustained contribution to national economy by increasing its production capacity from 260,000 to 360,000 barrels per day.

 The minister disclosed that NOGA was also in the final stages of awarding the construction of the Liquefied Natural Gas Project with a capacity of 400 million cubic feet.

 He said NOGA was presently seeking to obtain new renewable energy sources to meet the growing demand of Bahrain.

 The minister expressed his appreciation to the NOGA Holding Chief Executive Shaikh Mohamed bin Khalifa bin Ahmed Al Khalifa and the Conference Advisory Committee Chairman Audah A. Al Ahmadi for their outstanding efforts, which made the conference a highly effective event.

 While speaking at the opening session Shaikh Mohammed expressed his delight in Bahrain being a unique and attractive location for big conferences such as MEPEC.

 Dr. Mirza inaugurated the accompanying MEPEC2015 Exhibition, in which more than 250 companies including those from petrochemicals, refining, and oil and gas industries participated with exhibits spread over an estimated area of 8000 metres, with displays from companies and institutions representing 35 countries around the world, and with more than 5,000 visitors.