Delegates will hear from Aramco, SABIC, Bapco, KIPIC, PDO, Tatweer Petroleum and others about how the challenging experience of 2020 and 2021 made the industry more agile, resilient, and open to new horizons

The Opex Mena, an important annual event for the downstream industry, has evolved year on year and now incorporates focus on safety, highlighting and sharing best examples of successful practices in the past two year. It explores how the industry will evolve for the better, now and in the future.

This year’s edition entitled ‘Opex Mena 2022 – Excellence in Safety & Operations’ will take place on March 29–31 in Bahrain under the Patronage of Shaikh Mohammed bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, Bahrain’s Minister of Oil with the support of the Ministry of Oil.

The challenging experience of both 2020 and 2021 has made the industry more agile, resilient, and open to new horizons. It has also taught it about its capabilities and limits.

Such an experience should not be ignored and it should be ensured that as much as possible is learned from this experience.

"Thus it is very important that the downstream industry has a platform where companies come together to share experiences, hear from expert consultants and also from industry operators about project successes and difficulties, as part of the industry’s operational excellence (OE) and safety journey," says Stefan Chapman, Vice-President, Euro Petroleum Consultants, the organiser of Opex Mena.

Launched in 2013, Opex Mena is a must attend event for the downstream industry to collaborate and exchange knowledge for improving performance through strategies, technologies and tools related to OE and safety.

In a run-up to this year’s event, key regional end-users, including Bapco, Satorp, Aramco, S-Chem and Sipchem, gathered at the Opex Mena 2022 advisory board meeting to discuss operational excellence and safety issues in light of the turbulent past 24 months.

The meeting was a unique opportunity for the advisors to look back on the challenges faced, the identified opportunities and to look forward as the industry recovers from the Covid-19 pandemic.

Chapman says one key point to come from the discussion was related to the various innovations implemented during the Covid period.

"The board of experts concluded that it will be important to review these innovations, see which should continue and which should only be applied in exceptional cases, as each achievement comes at a cost."

During Opex Mena 2022, real-life examples will be shared and delegates will learn about strategies that proved to be effective and useful for regional end-users.

Technology also played a great role in adapting to the extraordinary conditions. Digitalized PSM processes, drone inspections, smart helmet technologies, teleconferences and trainings done in the VR environment are only a few examples that were shared by the board members.

Examples of such technologies and their implementations will be shared during the Digital Innovations Discussion Panel at Opex Mena 2022.

These past two years have also highlighted another key issue: are companies optimised for lower throughputs. It is, therefore, important to look at operational flexibility, network of traders, suppliers, contractors, and evaluate strategic decisions that were taken at that time.

It is also very important to understand the impact of process safety elements including management of change, asset integrity, training, and digitalisation.

All these significant aspects of operation will be discussed at Opex Mena 2022.

GULF SAFETY AWARD

Aimed at promoting safe operations within the industry, Opex Mena 2022 will include Euro Petroleum Consultants’ Gulf Safety Award.

Presented to the company that demonstrates the best overall achievement in HSE over the last two years, the Gulf Safety Award will celebrate the company that has found innovative ways of making lasting improvements to the safety and health of their workers, environment and productivity.

Delegates will also hear insightful presentations from major producers in the region including SABIC, Borouge, Bapco, Satorp, Tatweer Petroleum, KIPIC, Petroleum Development Oman and many more.

The programme also includes panel discussions on HSE, digital innovations and operational discipline.