Countdown to the fourth edition of the Middle East Process Engineering Conference & Exhibition (Mepec), to be held from October 9 to 11, at the Bahrain International Exhibition and Convention Centre in the Kingdom of Bahrain, has begun.

To give an update on the programme for the event, Mepec held its second Advisory Committee meeting last month, which was attended by HE Shaikh Mohamed bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, Bahrain’s Minister of Oil and chairman of Mepec Advisory Committee, and led by Dr Halim Redhwi, vice president of Dhahran Techno Valley Company and Mepec 2017 chairman.

The meeting marks the beginning of widespread preparations for the premium event for process engineering that brings together the international business community to one business hub. The event is co-organised by Saudi Arabian Section of The American Institute of Chemical Engineers (SAS-AIChE) and ME3 and officially supported by AIChE.

“Mepec is not only the premier process engineering event in the region for the energy sector with a strong focus on attracting and nurturing young engineers into the industry but is also hosting many exciting initiatives such as the exclusive AIChE Regional Chem-E-Car Competition, Leadership Excellence for Women Awards & Symposium (Lewas) and the Innovation Zone (ICZ),” Dr Redhwi said. 

The meeting was attended by over 40 senior representatives from a range of organisations including Saudi Aramco, Bapco, Saudi Basic Industries Corp (Sabic), nogaholding, Saudi Aramco Shell Refinery Company (Sasref), Aspentech, Saudi Aramco Mobil Refinery Company (Samref), S-Chem, Luberef, Bahrain Economic Development Board, Schneider Electric, Yokogawa, Alba, KFUPM, CH9, Al Hilal Group and a few others.

Fuad Mosa, Mepec 2017 Technical chair, delivered a comprehensive programme update focusing on abstract submissions and speaker invitations timelines. More than 200 papers and poster presentations will be soon reviewed by the Technical Committee members and the full technical programme will be released as early as May, Mosa revealed.

Other updates included the ICZ, led by Craig Smith, CEO of Dhahran Valley Technology Development Company, which will feature a unique platform devoted to the demonstration of novel techniques, cutting edge innovations and new inventions in process engineering.

Lewas, led by Reem Al Ghanim, of Saudi Aramco gave an update on the women in leadership awards, workshops and symposium. Other progress reports focused on the youth programme, and the first Middle East Fine & Specialty Chemicals Exhibition and Conference to be held alongside Mepec 2017.

Also, co-located with Mepec is the Middle East Process Safety Conference organised by the Center for Chemical Process Safety (CCPS), a division of AIChE.