The UAE’s Dragon Oil organizes GOTECH Gas & Oil Technology Showcase and Conference next month attracting a pool of the sector’s experts and professionals Investing billions of dollars in the next decade on global oil and gas exploration

Dubai UAE

Sallam Mohamed

Dragon Oil organizes, the 2nd cycle of the Gas & Technology Showcase and Conference (GOTECH), at Dubai World Trade Centre, DWTC, from October 23 to 25, 2018, attracting a pool of experts and professionals in the sector.

The announcement was made in a press conference organised by the event organising committee today at Hayat Regency, Creek, Dubai, in the presence of Ali Rashed Al Jarwan, Dragon Oil CEO, Mr. Fareed Al Hashmi, GOTECH Executive Director and Badria Khalfan, GOTECH’s official spokesperson, HR Department Manager and GOTECG Official Spokesperson.  

Al Jarwan thanked Sheikh Hamdan for supporting this cycle of the conference-cum-exhibition which is considered to be one of the most important platform of gas and oil industry and it is a part of Dubai vision 2021. Adding, “GOTECH is one of the leading events of the gas and oil industry in the region and this version is organised with the theme, “Innovation and Workforce Competence”. 

The event will see the participation from across the UAE and the world with HE Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, UAE Minister of Tolerance, delivering the keynote with the title; “Talents and HR Management in Oil and Gas Industry”.

GOTECH is a platform for integration between the most up-to-date applications and trends in oil and gas sector with focus on spreading innovative technologies, best practices and operation excellence with the ultimate objective of unleashing the international potentials in this sector.  

As part of its future strategy, Dragon Oil, a UAE oil and gas operator, intends to invest billions of US dollars throughout the next decade in some parts of the world, according to its CEO Mr. Ali Rashed Al Jarwan who is also the Chairman of GOTECH Gas & Oil Technology Showcase and Conference.

The Dubai based company is expanding its business in the countries of Asia and North Africa after the success of its oil exploration investments in Turkmenistan and Iraq in the past five years, said Mr. Al Jarwan.  

“Dragon Oil is about to organize one of the biggest events in the region’s oil and gas exhibitions and conferences, i.e. GOTECH, which addresses key issues in the oil and gas sector to encourage industry progress” Al Jarwan added.   

He stressed that the oil and gas industry should cope with the slump in oil prices, and in this respect, Dragon Oil is presently focusing on aligning and directing its strategy to cope with the present circumstances. Priority is given to the company’s competitiveness while maintaining safe and sustainable operations and cost optimization to achieve the best possible outcome in financial management.

Dragon Oil is the investment arm of Emirates National Oil Company Ltd (ENOC) and the sole operator of Cheleken Contract Area in Turkmenistan, in addition to several exploration assets in the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

According to its CEO, Mr. Ali Al Jarwan, the company has a number of MoUs and contracts for exploration in Iraq, Algeria, Egypt, Afghanistan and Tunisia. It is also exploring new areas of investment in developing oil and gas resources worth of billions of dollars, due to be revealed in the next few days. We are also looking forward to increase our production from 100,000 bpd tp 300,000 bpd by 2025, he added.

In 2017, Dragon Oil maintained a production level over 90,000 bpd from Cheleken Contract Area in Turkmenistan and from Iraq, and it plans to maintain the current production level and growth in the future. We are also planning to invest US$13 billion throughout the coming ten years in a number of strategic locations across the world as part of our future strategy, he said. We will also develop Al Fayha field in Iraq by investing US$4 billion in it, 30% from Dragon Oil. 

“Developing drilling operations and the deployment of four rigs in Cheleken Contract Area was an essential and key success factor that helped us complete some 20 wells in 2017. Eight extra storage tanks were installed with a new storage capacity of more than 2 million barrels, which will allow for flexible exportation,” Al Jarwan explained. The company is also planning to maintain its current production level and increasing it in the future to be 100,000 bpd in Turkmenistan and more 200,000bpd in other parts of the world.   

He also pointed out that the company achieved good financial results in the last year 2017 and our profits are forecasted to increase by 100 percent by the end of 2018 compared to 2017 profits.  

Following up on the progress of the preparations of GOTECH committees, Al Jarwan concluded that this event will be a key starting point for the region’s oil and gas sector. 

For his part, GOTECH Executive Director, Mr. Fareed Al Hashmi, said that the 2^nd edition of the exhibition is to be held in Dubai International Financial Centre, 22 to 24 October, will address several topics, such as sub-terrain and drilling technologies, survey engineering, operational excellence, integrated digital oilfields, in addition to the adoption of technology as an important tool to manage cases of uncertainty and reach the potential of untapped assets to achieve their full potential. 

“For three days, GOTECH will witness technical discussions between participants from different countries to exchange views on addressing the challenges currently facing the oil market,” added Al Hashmi.  

“The success of GOTECH’s 1^st edition encouraged us to hold the conference again this year,” added Al Hashmi.  

For her part, Badria Khalfan, GOTECH’s official spokesperson, stated that the conference will include specialized technical works delivered by the sector’s specialists, engineers and officials, adding that invitations were sent to world-renowned figures.   

Badria Khalfan mentioned that local and international technology companies showcased advanced technologies and applications during last year’s edition of GOTECH, adding that more than 90 local and international companies will participate in this year’s edition.  

She also pointed out that the company increased the percentage of UAE people among its workforce to 20 percent and this figure is expected to increase to 25 percent during this year and 30 percent in  the coming year as we have plans to attract more young Emirati people to work with us.