Oil projects on track: Mirza
Energy Minister Dr Abdulhussain Mirza yesterday opened the 23rd Annual Technical Conference of the Society of Gas Manufacturers at the Gulf Hotel’s Gulf International Convention Centre.
The event, organised by the Gas Manufacturers Association (GCC Branch), is being held in coordination and cooperation with the National Oil and Gas Authority (NOGA), Saudi Aramco and several oil and gas companies from Bahrain, the region and beyond.
Welcoming the participants, including researchers and those interested in the field, the minister said Bahrain would benefit from the scientific and practical papers being presented at the event, which is characterised by the diversity of events and meetings and significant participation of engineers, technicians and professionals along with executives from the oil and gas sector.
The minister said the theme of the conference, Effective Technology Solutions to Gas Industry, had taken an altogether new dimension in today’s rapidly-changing fuel price scenario.
“As gas industry professionals, we need to work on sustainable technology and adopt non-traditional austerity measures to cope with the emerging tough market conditions.
“Among other strategies, cost-cutting will be key to the coping process of our industry for a couple of years, at least, while oil producer countries adjust to an environment of lower prices, and the gas sector does not escape the situation.”
He said the current market conditions, arising from the slump in oil prices, were a global issue and not something that had affected the region alone. “However, different worlds have to deal with the same situation differently, so the West may have a different solution that makes sense to them, while our solution might be different.”
He said while many companies had already built up production capacity over the past 30 years, “we now need to match up functional capabilities in parallel”.
He said in Bahrain, they believed in cost-cutting without compromising on quality and choose sustainable and environment-friendly technology for their oil and gas projects.
“All our major oil projects are on track. All our oil and gas industry decisions are judiciously considered at every stage by our wise leadership.
According to market experts, he said, the current low prices were going to stay on for several years, longer than during the previous downturn, which came about due to a drop in temporary demand.
“The current price drop is caused by the supply side shale revolution and has pushed more and more companies toward trimming operating costs and investment budgets.
“That said, I believe the oil and gas industry in the Middle East will continue to grow profitably, once companies improve in areas such as operating and functional excellence.
Photo Caption:
Dr Abdulhussain Mirza addresses the technological conference
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