International Oil & Gas Executives Set to Gather for Operational Excellence Middle East Forum

Manama – Bahrain: 14 September 2014 – Today, having a comprehensive operational excellence management system (OEMS) is increasingly important. An OEMS is the cornerstone of a company’s commitment to managing safety, security, health and environmental issues plus risk and performance.

For over two decades, companies like ExxonMobil and Chevron have created comprehensive and complicated management systems that have meant a reduction in both lost-time incident rates and risks to the environment, with a remarkable decline in marine spills and continuing reductions in emissions. As a consequence of this, many National Oil Companies – particularly in the Middle East region – have begun to create their own OEMS’ on the backbone of these international examples.

When asked about the timing for NOC’s in the Gulf region to follow in the footsteps of their international counterparts, Bashar El Jawhari, Arcadis Middle East’s Regional Sector leader stated: “Operational Excellence is a journey and not an end destination. While many of the Middle East’s NOC’s have embarked on continuous improvement initiatives, many of them have fallen short of developing an overall framework that governs these improvements and prioritizes them in support of corporate strategic objectives. Striving to implement leading practices, the Middle East’s NOC are now developing Operational Excellence guidelines and frameworks leveraging the lessons learned and experience of the big IOCs such as ExxonMobil, Chevron and Shell.”

Elaborating further, Hafedh Al-Qassab, General Manager of Refining, Bahrain Petroleum Company, said: “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.  Therefore, anything we can use to leverage better performance can only help improve our position in the market place.”

In light of this, the Operational Excellence Middle East Forum, taking place at the Intercontinental Regency Hotel in Manama, Bahrain, from 28 – 30 September, has been specifically crafted to bring little pieces of the puzzle from leading IOCs, NOCs, EPCs, petrochemical companies,technology solution providers and management consultants, to deliver a big picture collaborative discussion that will ensure the Middle East region can continue its journey towards Operational Excellence.

The first day of the conference will be officially opened by the National Oil & Gas Authority prior to commencing with an industry panel addressing the drivers for operational excellence throughout the region and exploring the applicability of international models.

The second day will focus on the key components of operational excellence: leadership, people and change management before addressing the fundamental applications for maintenance, reliability and risk.

A one-day pre–conference master class will provide a practical and interactive demonstration of various approaches within operational excellence that have been successfully employed by IOC’s and NOC’s to deliver sustainable benefits.

The conference has an international distinguished speaking faculty including the Bahrain Petroleum Company, Oman Oil Company, Qatar Gas, Petrochemical Industries Company, GDF Suez, Imperial, GPIC, Maersk Oil and more. Leading technology providers and management consultants including DuPont, Siemens and Arcadis will also be sharing their expert insight.