Procurement Challenges in the Oil & Gas Industry Addressed in the 2nd Edition of the Supply Chain Forum

04 Jun 2014 • by Natalie Aster

LONDON – Market Publishers Ltd is happy to announce the successful completion of the 2014 Supply Chain in Oil and Gas forum, held at Royal Rose Hotel in Abu Dhabi, UAE last 19 – 21 May 2014 and organized by Praxis Global Research to discuss the recent regulations and strategies in Supply Chain. 

Materials  and  supply  procurement  is  a  profit-center operation  in  Oil  and  Gas  organizations,  and  its  profit contribution is becoming more  important compared  to construction and engineering;  therefore,  to properly manage  the supply  chain  in  the  industry  is  significant. This interactive forum brought together industry experts from Saudi Aramco, Mellitah Oil and Gas, Takreer Refinery, and Yemen LNG, among others, to discuss the relevant challenges faced by the oil and gas sector in the area of supply chain and procurement.

The 3-day forum started with a full day Master Class certified by CIPS and run by Ian Heptinstall of PMMS Middle East, who believes that the management of supply chain is crucial in the oil and gas industry for a number of reasons, among which is the massive amount of money spent in the supply chain. “Supply chain is very complex – the significant risks of delay and cost can have a very big impact (in organizations),” says Ian. In his Master Class, topics such as choosing the supplier’s selection criteria carefully, expediting the progress management, and approaches to manage key suppliers – to name a few – have been covered. Case-studies and best practices from oil and gas were presented.

In  the  following 2 days of  the  forum, major concerns  like  supplier and supply chain management,  risk management and compliance  in  supply  chain,  and  synchronizing  supply  and demand have been  addressed  through  a  series of  case-study presentations  and  breakout  discussions.  Several issues and challenges were identified during the highly interactive breakout sessions. With cost being one of the major issues in supply chain, experts discussed the challenges to effectively reducing it and then brainstormed the solutions. Among the challenges that were identified are enhancing the competition and  negotiation  with  suppliers,  reducing  carry-over  cost  by  inventory,  and  leverage spending  –  to  name  a  few.  The solutions include consolidate shipment/optimization, lean methodologies, and category management, among others. 

The  forum  continued  with  experience  sharing  from  Juwad  Al  Omari  from  GE WATER  AND  PROCESS,  Arun  Jani  from PETROFAC, Rebecca  Fox  from CIPS MENA,  and Ali Egal  from BOROUGE. These esteemed speakers shared their industry experience through real life-case solutions in this interactive platform. 

The third edition, to be held in 2015, is expected to continue addressing timely and relevant issues in the field of Supply Chain in the oil and gas industry. 

CONTACTS

The Market Publishers, Ltd.
Natalie Aster
Tel: +44 208 144 6009
Fax: +44 207 900 3970
[email protected] 
MarketPublishers.com