GDA 2023 - Conference Programme

The road to decarbonization necessitates that a holistic approach must be adopted to address the urgent need to limit global warming, there is no one single policy, fuel, or technology that will solve the carbon emission issue. But rather a mixture of progressive policies, fuels and technologies will enable the world to limit global warming. More importantly, a collaborative and inclusive collaboration among policymakers, the industry, financiers, and other stakeholders is needed to achieve the desired decarbonization goals. In the GCC region, we are committed to maintain our leadership position in the energy market by addressing our stakeholders and customers energy needs by providing the world with low carbon fuels that will support the economy for decades to come. Backed by political commitment towards carbon naturality, companies in the region are well-positioned to de-carbonize their operations and set an example for others to follow. This panel will address the following key aspects:  - What are the available de-carbonization pathways? - What are the opportunities and challenges? - The role of financial institutions in supporting the decarbonization of the industry - Carbon pricing and circularity - How to effectively communicate the industry decarbonization effort to stakeholders?

The downstream industry is currently passing through many uncertainties and fluctuations, such as feedstock availability, market demands, regulatory/environmental constraints, competitive energy systems, technology disruptions, and geo-politics. It is vital for refiners and technology/service providers to understand these trends and prepare proactively. This special session will discuss several questions such as: - How to make sense of diverse trends and market analyses from different sources? - What refiners and technology/service providers should focus on? - When is the oil/product demand most likely to peak? - Is fuel demand threatened by the EV/FCEV growth, shared mobility, autonomous vehicles, regulatory framework, or policies? When and how they may cause real disruption to gasoline demand?

The downstream industry is agile and dynamic. Process technologies are continuously evolving, to improve performance, increase margin, stay competitive, and/or keep meeting the ever-changing customer requirements and environmental regulations which are becoming more stringent.   This session will focus on the challenges the downstream industry is facing, including enforcement of more stringent changes in customer requirements and environmental regulations, the evolvement of new market competitors, higher operating costs and minimal refinery margin. What is the impact of these challenges on the downstream industry? What strategies oil refiners are taking to overcome these challenges, and how transforming to innovative process technologies can help refiners to stay in business and be competitive.

Zero-carbon energy sources, including hydrogen, nuclear, biofuel, and renewable energy sources like wind, solar, as well as lithium-ion batteries, coexist with fossil-based sources e.g. oil, natural gas, and coal.  However, the transformation of global energy from fossil-based to zero-carbon energy sources is currently going on at a fast pace and will be enforced in many countries before the second half of this century, creating a new challenging environment for the downstream industry.   This panel discussion will focus on the energy transition from fossil-based to zero‑carbon energy, and the challenges for the downstream industry.  What are the roles of government policies in enforcing this transition? How environmentalists, business analysts, refiners, and automakers are predicting the future as electric vehicles grow in popularity? What is the impact on fossil fuel demand? How refiners will keep growing in the energy business while reducing costs and improving CO2 intensity performance? Where will be the downstream industry in the future?

For downstream refiners to become highly competitive and flexible to meet future challenges and capture growth opportunities, panelists would share their latest success story in project execution, best practices and lessons learned. This will enable GCC refiners to achieve the highest capital efficiency and achieve flawless commissioning and startups as well as safe operations. Panelists are expected to discuss current challenges and issues faced by refiners during the project's life cycle, especially in GCC. Such topics include Project Definition, Engineering Duration and costs as well as construction delays and costs overruns.Discussions will also include How and What Refiners, PMCs’ and EPCs’ can do to execute projects efficiently while minimizing potential risks. Panel discussion should aim to identify current gaps in project delivery in GCC and/or downstream refineries and how can project stakeholders bridge these gaps.