Interview with Fadi Mhaini from Chevron Lummus Global

We are delighted to talk to Fadi Mhaini, Director -Technology Licensing from Chevron Lummus Global. Fadi is a member of the MEPEC 2019 Technical Committee and he shares with us his thoughts on the current trends and what the future holds for the Oil and Gas downstream sector in the Middle East.

• What industry trends and growth opportunities do you see for those operating in the oil and gas industry?
   

It is really dependent on the location; we see increased number of Delayed Cokers in Russia to convert VR into liquid products and Anode or Needle Coke. These coke grades are primary used in Steel and Aluminium industries.  In the Middle East, we see more application of Ebullated bed Residue Hydrocracking to convert VR into lighter liquid products suitable as feed stock to steam crackers to produce key petrochemical product such as Ethylene and Propylene. We also see a lot of attention is given to energy saving projects. These are driven to increase refinery profitability in today’s competitive marketplace.      

• How important do you think it is for the industry to leverage digital transformation to optimize the use of critical equipment?
   

Digital transformation will become very important part of modern Oil & Gas complexes of the future. It uses important plant data for easier unit monitoring, analysis and maintenance which result in improved unit safety and reliability.      

• With the advent of digital transformation, what do you think are the immediate and long-term implications for oil and gas companies?
   

Oil and Gas companies will be able to satisfy growing global market demands quicker and be able to implement project (s) in a shorter timeline. 

• What is the impact of the environmental regulations/ compliance on the oil and gas sector?
   

Refineries have to invest consciously in modern technologies to stay in compliance with these international environmental regulations like EURO V, IMO 2020 and others and upgrade low value feedstocks into high value clean transportation fuels. Products that can’t meet specification will be very difficult to sale in today’s everchanging domestic and export markets.

• How do you think the MEPEC conference and exhibition can promote the advancement of the Middle East downstream industry, and what are your hopes from participating?
   
  Certainly, MEPEC is the right place where process engineers and industry top experts get together at one place to present their case studies in different fields. Personally, I’m hoping to meet with young talented process engineers and explore different cooperation opportunities.