SAOGE 2012 In Dammam Lines Up Energy Industry Experts

The 4th Edition of Saudi Arabia International Oil & Gas Exhibition (SAOGE 2012) will be held in Dammam from Sept. 24-26, according to an IES announcement.

Keynote speakers participating in the opening ceremony of the event on Sept. 24 include Tom Bergin, renowned Reuters energy correspondent and author of ‘Spills & Spin: The Inside Story of BP.’

Tom has been a reporter for over 12 years during which he has reported from over 20 countries including Iran, Iraq, India, Pakistan, Tanzania, the US and Russia.

For the past seven years, he has led Reuters coverage of the oil and gas industry in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. During this time, he has chartered the rise in oil prices to record levels, interviewed oil ministers and the CEOs of the biggest oil companies in the world, reported on measures to tackle climate change, as well as writing hundreds of stories about BP.

In addition, the event has the support of the Saudi Arabian Section of American Institute of Chemical Engineers (SAS-AiChE) and will have Abdul Mohsen Majnouni, chairman of SAS-AiChE at the ceremony.

He will be joined by Sir John Jenkins KCMG LVO, UK Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, who succeeded Sir Tom Richard Vaughan Phillips KCMG in June of this year, so this will be one of his first speaking engagements in his new role.

Sir John joined the FCO (British Foreign & Commonwealth Office) in 1980 and after studying Arabic at SOAS and elsewhere has served mainly in the Middle East and South East Asia.

His first posting was to Abu Dhabi. He has been the British ambassador to four countries.

The fourth keynote speaker will be Thomas Williams, deputy chief of mission at the US Embassy in Riyadh.

He was deputy chief of mission at the US Embassy in Kuwait until July 2011 and prior to that assignment he had held various senior positions, including roles at the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, deputy director of the Arabian Peninsula and Iran office within the same bureau, economic chief in Abu Dhabi, political officer in Bahrain, and he also served in the political section in Kuwait from 1996-1998.

Arab News

Leave a comment