Focus on Improving Margins at Downstream Asia in Singapore in October

Singapore, Singapore, June 24, 2012 --(PR.com)-- This year’s Downstream Asia conference and expo will gather more than 650 key players in the refining and petrochemical industry in Singapore in October. The event is part of Singapore International Energy Week which is attended by 20 000 people every year. Says Downstream Asia director Mustafah Abdullah: “In line with the Singapore government’s push to further develop Singapore as a refining and petrochemical hub in Asia, Downstream Asia is pleased to be a part of the prestigious Singapore International Energy Week.”

Margin improvements
According to Abdullah, margin improvements is one of the biggest challenges faced by the industry: “ideally these should be achieved via higher utilization, better efficiency, and being green. There have been so many innovative technologies and strategic partnerships that we have seen in Asia that is proving instrumental boosting margins, while maintaining environmental standards. Downstream Asia will be showcasing these major projects and will feature presentations from such refineries.”

He continues: “we will also focus on collaboration and joint ventures, and market and price trends. These are in addition to the other key perennial issues we cover which include the latest conversion technologies, catalyst developments, energy management, operational excellence, process safety, and integration of refining & petrochemical sectors.”

Expanded programme
The programme for this year’s Downstream Asia has been expanded from two to three tracks. Mustafah Abdullah explains: “the third track will allow us to cover an even bigger range of topics to include case studies of recent joint ventures between NOCs and IOCs in the region. There will also be a cutting-edge hydrocracking and catalyst seminar conducted by Axens, which is a top global leader in processing technology. Its projects in Southeast Asia have won much acclaim and this seminar was a sell-out last year. We also host operator-led roundtables in parallel to the main conference, which are intimate discussion forums between operators wishing to benchmark against their peers.”

Speaker highlights at Downstream Asia include:

- Isabelle Muller, General Secretary from Europia
- Shu Zhao Xia, Deputy Chief Engineer from Sinopec
- Suleyman Ozmen, Vice President, Refining and Chemicals Licensing from Shell Global Solutions
- Dr Le Xuan Huyen, Deputy General Manager – Petroleum Processing Division, Executive Committee’s Member of Nghi Son Refinery & Petrochemical, from PETROVIETNAM

Event dates and location:
24-25 October 2012
Marina Bay Sands Hotel, Singapore