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His Excellency Dr. Abdul Hussain bin Ali Mirza, Minister of Energy, opened the third Middle East Maintcon 2014 Conference and Exhibition at the Gulf International Exhibition Centre - Gulf Hotel in Bahrain on Sunday evening, December 7, 2014. The event was organized by Gulf Society for Maintenance Professionals (GSMP) and Bahrain Society of Engineers (BSE), supported by the Global Forum for Maintenance and asset management in collaboration with the National Oil and gas Authority (NOGA). The Maintenance Conference and Exhibition will continue until Wednesday, December 10.

The exhibition participants included many international oil companies from various countries around the world, including oil companies in the Gulf Cooperation Council, among them Saudi Aramco, Kuwait Petroleum Corporation, Flow Serve, YASREF, SADARA, ADNOC, Zamil, Al Abdul Karim Holding, AHSTCO, Aluminium Bahrain (Alba), MCSC, Petroleum Development Oman, Bahrain Petroleum Company (Bapco) and Gulf Petrochemical Industries Company (GPIC) and Bahrain National Gas Company (Banagas).

H.E. Dr. Mirza, welcomed the participants to the key technical event held in the Kingdom of Bahrain. He urged everyone to take advantage of the research papers presented during the conference sessions and from the technology and equipment displayed at the exhibition. He said such events provided a unique opportunity for companies in the Gulf and elsewhere to recognise the industry requirements in the region and get introduced to the latest research, inventions and technology in the field. He said the event was a good opportunity for maintenance professionals from local companies and global enterprises to exchange experiences and success stories from oil and gas and various other industrial fields. It also provided a chance to know the latest developments and initiatives in the field of maintenance and promoted a culture of reliability and excellence, which was vital to the safety of complex equipment and assets, in addition to talent development.

The Minister said that there was an urgent need for safety tools with high technical quality to match the continuous development of the global oil market, taking into account the diversity of the new trends as well as the changes in applicable rules and regulations in the vital field. Noting that the industry oil and gas was constantly evolving, he said it was encouraging to see operational efficiency further strengthening procedures. Pointing out the OPEC 2014 report, which stated that oil played a pivotal role in meeting the world energy needs, even as the global economy more than doubles in size, population grows, prosperity expands everywhere, and despite a strong reduction in energy intensity.

The Minister added that the report indicated energy demand will increase by 60% by 2040, with fossil fuels still the main source of supply, while oil will remain the energy type with the largest share. Noting that oil-related investment requirements would reach $10 trillion between 2014 and 2040, and the extra capacity is estimated at US $ 7.3 trillion during the same period and that the OPEC countries need, on average, to invest nearly US $ 40 billion annually over the past the remainder of this decade and to US $ 60 billion annually in the long term and this is an indication of the presence of the huge investments in the field of maintenance in the region and the world.

H. E. Dr Mirza said that the Middle East remained Middle East remains the major crude exporting region and continue to lead the international crude oil trade. Organizations that understand their risk profile and take concrete action to mitigate risks will be better positioned to be successful in the marketplace. Oil and gas companies took a holistic approach of asset information to ensure that documentation are properly identified, stored, classified, accessible, accurate, and appropriately safeguarded.

He said that NOGA had, in cooperation with Microsoft, recently implemented a cloud computing project to introduce a NOGA Private Cloud, moving the organization towards centralised data storage, and online access to shared resources. The switch will enable NOGA to transition to cloud computing, which in turn will promote its central role in the country’s economy, making use of smart solutions to the work environment challenges.

The Minister said that maintenance has played an important role in the past few years, which was most pronounced in plant operation and averting total collapse through preventive, predictive and proactive maintenance which is designed to extend the useful age of the equipment.

In conclusion, the Minister said NOGA was keen to attract international oil conferences, and exhibitions to the Kingdom to turn Bahrain a global hub for such events. He heads of ten international maintenance, reliability and asset management societies, who are present here to attend the GFMAM biennial meeting. He expressed gratitude and appreciation to all delegates and participants, and to the Conference Chairman, Engineer Nezar Al Shammasi, all GSMP officials, the Bahrain Society of Engineers and the Global Forum on Maintenance Asset Management for making the event highly successful.

Mr. Mohammad Saggaf from Saudi Aramco also spoke at the opening session and expressed his appreciation to H.E. Dr. Mirza for his support for the third edition of Maintcon series held in Bahrain. Engineer Masoud Al Hermi, the BSE President also spoke on the occasion, where he pointed out the importance of the event, which he called a major international oil and industrial opportunity for companies to focus on the increasing use of maintenance technology in the oil and gas industry in the Middle East. He said it represented a unique opportunity for the GCC and international companies working to get to know the latest products, technologies and related services in the accompanying exhibition. Engineer Al Shammasi thanked the Minister for his huge support to the Maintcon series.