Middle East Process Safety Conference Draws More Than 700 | AIChE

Middle East Process Safety Conference Draws More Than 700

June 3, 2015

The American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE), and its Center for Chemical Process Safety (CCPS), hosted what was the largest process safety conference ever in the Middle East, in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, from May 20 to 21, 2015. The conference, centered on the theme, “Process Safety: Journey Towards Excellence,” drew more than 700 delegates from more than 100 organizations, along with 22 sponsors and exhibitors from industries including oil & gas, chemical and agrochemical industries.

His Excellency Mohammed Al Qubaisi, exploration and production director of ADNOC, officially opened the Middle East Process Safety Conference [MEPSC] with conference Co-Chairs Shakeel Kadri, executive director of CCPS, and Bakheet Al Ameri, manager in the Corporate Health Safety and Environment Division of ADNOC. In his opening speech, Al Qubaisi said: “This conference is a reflection of ADNOC’s vision to achieve operational excellence and the sharing of best practices on industrial processes among all participating companies. The conference program has been designed to help systematically reduce risks and improve worker and process safety in line with the best international practices in the oil and gas industry.”

Also on the first day, a process safety leadership panel highlighted the importance of strong process safety culture, the need for providing process safety technical and culture training to the workforce, and the need for accelerating process safety education in undergraduate chemical engineering education to sustain future process safety excellence.

“The conference went beyond our expectations,” Kadri said, adding that “the Middle East is a key constituency as CCPS continues implementing its global vision to eliminate significant process safety incidents.” He added that “ADNOC senior management has demonstrated great leadership by endorsing this new meeting and it has played a major role in developing a great foundation for us for an even greater regional event in the Middle East in 2017.” 

The event offered more than 60 hours of technical presentations, two high-level keynote addresses, and seven expert panelists. Two pre-conference technical workshops attracted more than 90 attendees.

MEPSC is now part of the CCPS family of conferences aligned with the flagship Global Congress on Process Safety. The event in Abu Dhabi complements CCPS conferences in North and South America, India, Australia, China and Europe.

About AIChE

AIChE is a professional society of 50,000 chemical engineers in 100 countries. Its members work in corporations, universities and government using their knowledge of chemical processes to develop safe and useful products for the benefit of society. Through its varied programs, AIChE continues to be a focal point for information exchange on the frontiers of chemical engineering research in such areas as energy, sustainability, biological and environmental engineering, nanotechnology and chemical plant safety and security. More information about AIChE is available at www.aiche.org.

About CCPS

CCPS is a not-for-profit corporate membership organization within AIChE that identifies and addresses process safety needs in the chemical, pharmaceutical and petroleum industries. CCPS brings together manufacturers, government agencies, consultants, academics and insurers to lead the way in improving process safety. Members, working in project subcommittees, define and develop useful, time-tested guidelines that have practical applications that run the gamut from human factors to qualitative and quantitative risk analysis to security vulnerability to inherently safety design. With more than 100 publications, CCPS is at the forefront of efforts to improve process safety performance. More information about AIChE is available at www.aiche.org/ccps.