Middle East Refining Conference

Middle East Downstream Week 2009, 23-26 March 2009 covers a full four days on refining and fuels topics including a hands-on, practical Refinery Economics Workshop. Below is the agenda for the 10th Anniversary Middle East Refining Conference, download the PDF agenda on the right for more information on the event format.

Refinery Economics Workshop on 23 March 2009. 

MIDDLE EAST REFINING CONFERENCE AT MIDDLE EAST DOWNSTREAM WEEK 2009

DAY ONE: TUESDAY 24TH MARCH 2009

08:00 Registration and coffee

09:00 Opening address and business card exchange - meet your fellow attendees

09:15 Keynote presentation Celebrating the successful business operations of the downstream sector in the Middle East over the
last 10 years, our keynote presentation will provide a review of the regions progress and a snapshot of its calendar highlights, closing with a look ahead to the future growth of the sector in the next 10 years.

Sultan Ahmed Al Mehairi, Director, Marketing and Refining, ABU DHABI NATIONAL OIL COMPANY(ADNOC)

09:35 Session one: Today and Tomorrow:a look ahead for the future of the Middle East refining sector

Outlook for the refining industry from a Middle Eastern perspective. Key market drivers will be highlighted.
The changing scope of the Middle East refining industry: evaluation of expansion capacity and limits. Long term strategies of the regional national oil companies.

• Supply and demand.A look at potential regional and worldwide shortfalls and their implications.
• The role of IOC’s in the downstream sector.
• Case study review of Total and Saudi Aramco’s strong strategic partnership to construct a 400,000 barrel per day world class full conversation refinery in Jubail, Saudi Arabia.
• Asian, Indian and African refi ning expansionmplans and their significance for the future of the Middle East sector.

Jasem Ali Al Sayegh, General Manager, ABU DHABI OIL REFINING COMPANY (TAKREER)
Jean Jacques Mosconi, Senior Vice President, Strategy and Development, TOTAL
Johannes Benigni, Managing Director, JBC ENERGY GMBH

11:15 Coffee break sponsored by

11:45 Session two: Transforming the Middle East refining sector: Overcoming industry and market challenges

• Case study review of Saudi Arabia’s PetroRabigh.
• A look at how Saudi Aramco’s Rabigh refinery has been transformed from a topping refi nery to a large fully integrated refi nery and petrochemical complex utilising technologies which are amongst the most advanced in the world.
• Case study: a look at TAKREER’s Ruwais refinery expansion project. Opportunities and challenges.
• Case study: a look at how KNPC are meeting the challenge of contributing to a global and stable supply of energy through their clean fuel project.
• Qatar Petroleum case study: The current global financial impact on refi nery mega projects in Qatar.

Mohamed Ghazi Al Mutairi, Deputy Managing Director, Mina Abdullah Refi nery, KUWAIT NATIONAL PETROLEUM COMPANY (KNPC)
Jassim Darwish, Senior Project Development Engineer, Downstream Ventures Directorate, QATAR PETROLEUM
Yasir Al Shaikh, Staff Engineer, SAUDI ARAMCO
Mohamed Al Yabhouni, Engineering and Projects Division Manager, ABU DHABI OIL REFINING COMPANY (TAKREER)

12:45 Lunch sponsored by

Lunch Welcome Address: Nick Spencer,President, CONOCOPHILLIPS, ABU DHABI

14:15 Session three: Roundtable discussions:

Middle East refinery directors: Part I
This session will be devoted to interactive open discussions providing the opportunity for attendees to exchange ideas and information with our panel of senior refining experts on key issues affecting the Middle East refining sector.

Refinery executives leading the discussions will include Directors from Refineries in countries such as: Saudi
Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait and Qatar

Mohamed Ghazi Al Mutairi, Deputy Managing Director, Mina Abdullah Refinery, KUWAIT NATIONAL PETROLEUM COMPANY (KNPC)
Ali Mohamed Al Jabri, Manager, Ruwais Refinery,ABU DHABI OIL REFINING COMPANY (TAKREER)

15:15 Coffee break sponsored by

15:45 Session four: Roundtable discussions:Middle East refinery directors: Part II

Refinery executives leading the discussions will include Directors from Refineries in countries suchas: Jordan, Egypt, Iran, Libya, Syria, Yemen and India

Abdel Kareem Alawin, Executive Director, ZarkaRefinery, JORDAN PETROLEUM REFINERY

Hamid Reza Seyed Jafari, Head of Research and Development, Shiraz Oil Refinery, NATIONAL IRANIAN OIL REFINING AND DISTRIBUTION COMPANY (NIORDC)

Nouraddin Makhlouf, General Director, HOMS REFINERY COMPANY
Rupam Kr Sarmah, Deputy Manager Operations,NUMALIGARH REFINERY LTD

16:45 Close of day one

19:00 Gala Dinner Hosted by


DAY TWO: WEDNESDAY, 25 MARCH 2009

08:30 Registration and coffee

09:00 Opening and business card exchange - meet your fellow attendees

09:10 Session five: Meeting the expansion challenge of the Middle East refi ning sector: Technology innovations – Part 1

• Reducing capital cost and scheduling in the current challenging marketplace at the same
• time as meeting tighter environmental product specifications.
• Review of the latest iso-cracking technology allowing the refinery to convert heavy crudes into valuable ultra clean fuels.
• With economic pressure to process heavier feeds and increasingly stricter environmental pressures, we look at how to achieve FCC
• environmental emissions limits using additives.

Phil Brown, Global Refining Manager, FOSTER WHEELER

Gerrit Polhaar, Technology Licensing Manager,CHEVRON LUMMUS GLOBAL

Martin Evans, Technical Services Director, INTERCAT

Philip Morris, Marketing Manager Refining, AIR PRODUCTS

10:40 Coffee break sponsored by

11:10 Session six: Meeting the expansion challenge of the Middle East refining sector: Technology innovations – Part 2

• Mega hydrogen projects in the Middle East:design, experiences and challenges.
• Due to huge demand for clean fuels worldwide we take a look at how Middle Eastern refi neries are expanding their capacity to produce low sulphur products.
• The challenges of project engineering,procurement and construction (EPC). Case study example of an ongoing project.
• How to reduce gasoline benzene through state of the art reformate alkylation catalytic technology.
• Latest developments in catalytic reforming.

Henrik Olsson, Technology Sales Manager,HALDOR TOPSOE
Jean Paul Gouzard, Process Licensing Director,AXENS
El Mekki El Malki, New Business Development Coordinator, EXXONMOBIL RESEARCH AND ENGINEERING COMPANY

12:45 Lunch

14:15 Session seven: Middle East operator experiences

• Project case study at Qatar Petroleum. Heavy residue FCC catalyst experiences
• Overcoming obstacles and troubleshooting for successful operations of a refinery.
• Improving energy efficiency within the refinery to enhance the competitive position: financial
• savings, lower imports and less emissions.
• Case study: Saudi Aramco detail the transformation of a refinery to improve its profi tability.
• Pricing challenges for the Middle East refined products. NIORDC highlight how to make strategic decisions based on the refinery margin calculation.

Stephen Amalraj, Technical Consultant, Lead Project Engineer, ALBEMARLE
Gollapudi Venkateswar, Lead Process Engineer,QATAR PETROLEUM
Abdel Kareem Alawin, Executive Director, Zarka Refinery, JORDAN PETROLEUM REFINERY
Uthmam Al Ghamdi, Engineering Superintendent,Riyadh Refinery, SAUDI ARAMCO
Hamid Reza Seyed Jafari, Shiraz Oil Refinery,NATIONAL IRANIAN OIL REFINING AND DISTRIBUTION COMPANY (NIORDC)

15:15 Coffee break sponsored by

16:00 Session eight: 10th Anniversary Meeting panel discussion

A number of our key speakers will provide a summary overview of their key fi ndings and learnings from the presentations and discussions, followed by the opportunity for interactive comments and questions between the audience and speakers.

16:45 Closing Address of the 10th Anniversary Meeting

19:00 Pre-Symposium registration and welcome reception

To stimulate full interaction between speakers and attendees, panel question and answer discussions will follow at the end of each session.