International oil and gas executives are set to gather for the third Operational Excellence Middle East Forum in Bahrain

Today, facing what could turn out to be a prolonged period of price uncertainty, oil companies are being forced to rise to the management challenge and adopt a raft of innovative solutions for their downstream sectors.

Having a comprehensive Operational Excellence/Integrity Management System (OEMS) is increasingly important in the operating environments of today. Given the volatility with oil prices, companies are having to cut costs and become more efficient both of which come by having a comprehensive OEMS in place. An OEMS is the cornerstone of a company’s commitment to managing safety, security, health and environmental issues and risks and achieving excellence in performance.

This was emphasised by Hafedh Al Qassab, general manager of refining for Bahrain Petroleum Company (Bapco): "Our Operational Excellence Management System (OEMS) is a systematic approach to identify and close performance gaps. It is used to integrate objectives, plans and activities into daily operations, with the ultimate goal of meeting world-class performance in the management of process and personal safety, health, environment reliability and efficiency. As our refining world becomes more competitive, and there are more external pressures on us, we need to become better at what we do. Our Vision at Bapco is ‘striving for excellence’ and for us that means in every aspect of our business. Hence for us, OEMS is a natural progression to improve our performance to best in class. The Middle East is now the refining hub of the world, and it is a competitive landscape. Hence, anything we can use to leverage better performance, can only help improve our position in the market place."

In light of this, the third Operational Excellence Middle East forum, being held under the patronage of His Excellency Dr Abdul Hussain bin Ali Mirza, Minister of Energy, Kingdom of Bahrain and sponsored by Bapco is taking place at the Radisson Blu Diplomat Hotel in Manama, Bahrain from October 19 to 20. The Forum will provide a critical platform for discussion and showcase operational excellence case studies from the world’s leading oil, gas and petrochemical companies.