News

Under the gracious patronage of His Highness the Prime Minister, Shaikh Khalifa bin Salman Al- Khalifa, the Minister of State and Chairman of the National Oil & Gas Authority, Dr. Abdul Hussain bin Ali Mirza, opened the 7th Middle East Conference & Exhibition of Geological Sciences ” GEO 2006 ” at 1600 hours on Sunday, 26th March 2006 at the Bahrain International Exhibition Centre. Since 1994, this three-day biennial event has been organized by the Arabian Exhibition Centre, American Association of Petroleum Geologists, Dhahran Geoscience Society, European Association of Geoscientists and Engineers, and other societies in cooperation with NOGA, and with the support of Saudi Aramco, Bapco, ExxonMobil, Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) and other companies.

In his opening speech, H.E. the Minister of State and Chairman of NOGA, Dr. Abdul Hussain bin Ali Mirza, highlighted the current developments in the oil markets worldwide and the efforts of the Kingdom of Bahrain and of the other GCC countries in developing oil exploration and investment businesses. His Excellency pointed out the reputation and importance of GEO as a forum for the transfer of knowledge, expertise and technologies, as reflected in the high profile of participation. Dr. Mirza confirmed that the Government of Bahrain supports the adoption of such specialized events, which contribute to developing the capabilities of those engaged in the oil industry and to keeping them abreast of latest technical and scientific updates.Addresses were made during the sessions of the conference by heads of regional and international petroleum companies, including Saudi Aramco, CGG France and ExxonMobil. They reviewed experiments of their companies and countries in the field of oil exploration and current challenges facing this business.

This year’s 3-day conference was held under the theme of “Meeting Exploration & Production Challenges to Energize the World”. It was attended by more than (1,500) experts and professionals from several international, regional, Arab and Gulf countries. More than (330) papers were discussed on various topics related to giant fields of the Middle East and milestones in geophysical technologies. Other topics of discussion covered people, technology and data. Pre- and post-conference specialized training sessions and technical workshops were organized and facilitated by specialists and professionals from various international countries.
 
His Highness the Prime Minister delegated His Excellency Shaikh Isa bin Ali Al-Khalifa, Adviser to the Prime Minister for Industrial & Petroleum Affairs, to open the exhibition. An accompanying exhibition was organized and more than (120) leading oil companies took part by displaying latest products and technologies in oil and gas exploration and production. Such companies included Chevron, Schlumberger, Halliburton, ExxonMobil, Total and Baker Hughes Inc. The participating GCC petroleum companies included Saudi Aramco, the Bahrain Petroleum Company (BAPCO), Qatar Petroleum, Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), Petroleum Development Oman (PDO), and Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC).