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OAPEC Activities
Volume 41 Issue 10
8
number of rigs operating in Arab and foreign
countries, the number of wells that has been
completed around the world and the number
of producing wells. He also tackled the proven
conventional oil reserves in the world, which
produce about 23 million b/d according to
statistics at the beginning of 2015. OAPEC
members claim about 27% of the world’s gas
reserves, they marketed about 17% of the
marketed natural gas in the world until the
beginning of 2014.
The lecturer has shown that shale oil
resources in Arab countries until today are still
just unproven speculations. If they were there
and eligible for production, these resources
would not account for more than 4.5% of the
total resources announced by the US Geological
Survey; most of which are located in Arab
countries at depths of more than 4000 meters.
This means such reserves would need huge
investments and huge quantities of water to
produce such hydrocarbons. This is in addition
to other obstacles.
Day 2: Monday 5 October 2015
The second day included two sessions:
the first held at 9AM, chaired by Dr Samir
Al Qar’ish, Director of the Technical Affairs
Department, OAPEC. It consisted of two
lectures:
Oil Refining Industry
A
paper
presented
by
Engineer
Emad
Nasef,
Senior Refining
Expert, Technical Affairs
Department, OAPEC. The
lecturer defined what is
meant by the refining industry;
he then listed the types of crude oils according
to their chemical composition, or density, or
their content of sulfur impurities.
The lecturer then highlighted current
challenges in the oil refining industry resulting
from price fluctuations of the crude oil and its
products in the world markets, as well as the
huge burdens of meeting the environmental
legislations on improving product specifications
to produce clean fuel, and eliminating the
practice of polluting the environment, in
addition to the high operating, building, and
maintenance costs. He also pointed out to the
most important procedures that can be followed
to overcome these challenges, improve