MORE than 2,000 oil and gas professionals converged on the Bahrain International Exhibition and Convention Centre for the opening session of the 11th Middle East Geosciences Conference and Exhibition (GEO 2014).
The associated 8,000 sq m exhibition of the oil and gas exploration industry’s products and services opened in a separate ceremony under the patronage of HRH Prime Minister Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa.
The conference ceremony and executive plenary session assembled a panel of high-ranking industry figures who delivered their own perspective on this year’s theme “Taking Geoscience Beyond the Conventional.”
The theme focused on current challenges facing hydrocarbon exploration, with emphasis on future technology and innovation.
“As the world changes at an ever-increasing pace, we can only succeed because we enable innovation for the rapid development and implementation of solutions,” said GEO 2014 chairman and executive director of exploration at Saudi Aramco Ibraheem Assa’adan.
He added that GEO 2014 was an opportunity for upstream professionals in the region to share latest applications and developments in geosciences as one of the premier conferences for technical exchange.
The parallel exhibition catered to industry operators, service providers, academia and technology solution providers to share the latest breakthroughs and solution-oriented innovations for everyday technical challenges.
“Events like GEO help bring together the industry to share knowledge and best practices as we make forays into new areas of innovation,” Assa’adan said.
The four-day conference’s opening ceremony began with welcome addresses from Bahraini Finance Minister and Minister in Charge of Oil and Gas Affairs and chairman of the National Oil and Gas Authority Shaikh Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Khalifa and Assa’adan.
Keynote addresses followed from Saudi Aramco senior vice-president for the upstream, Amin Nasser, Royal Dutch Shell executive director for projects and technology Matthias Bichsel and Schlumberger chief executive Paal Kibsgaard.
More than 200 technical and poster presentations designed to share knowledge and experience of managing, operating and supplying companies followed over the subsequent three days of the conference.
WIDE-RANGING TOPICS
Topics ranged from human resources, reservoir characterisation, advances in seismic and non-seismic technologies, next generation technologies, petrophysics, geological studies and basin modelling, exploration and production, harvesting unconventional resources, environment and safety, rift basin exploration and rock physics in addition to special sessions.
GEO 2014 also offered five panel sessions led by presidents, vice-presidents, chief executives and managers of key players in the industry such as Baker Hughes, Bapco, CGG, ExxonMobil, Halliburton, Kuwait Oil Company, Saudi Aramco, Schlumberger, Shell and Total amongst others.
The sessions covered emerging players in the Middle East and Africa region, the future of unconventional resources, gas demand challenges, human resources and next generation upstream technologies.
More than 150 companies from 20 plus countries took part at the GEO 2014 exhibition, which covered all areas of petroleum geosciences.
