Delegation from the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Petroleum & Mineral Resources Visits Japan
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Delegation from the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Petroleum & Mineral Resources Visits Japan
On June 1, 2010, H.E. Yahya J. Shinawi, Director General, and Mr.Abdullah I. Al-Jof, Technical Training Coordinator, from the Eastern Province Branch of the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources visited JCCP.
The ministry’s head office is located in Riyadh, and the Eastern Province Branch is located in Dhahran. While the Riyadh head office is in charge of oil policies, the Eastern Province Branch is responsible for supervising the technical aspects of Saudi Arabia’s oil industry. Mr.Shinawi is the chief officer of this department.
At JCCP, Mr. Masataka Sase, Executive Director, Mr.Morihiro Yoshida, Managing Director, Mr. Mitsuyoshi Saito, Counselor, and other executive officers welcomed the two gentlemen from Saudi Arabia.
1. Background to Visit
JCCP and Mr. Al-Jof corresponded a number of times since last year about participation in JCCP’s technical training programs on environmental management in the refinery. When JCCP members visited the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources last October under the Cooperation with Training Center Program, they provided an overview of JCCP courses related to environmental management and extended an invitation to Mr. Al-Jof to visit JCCP Headquarters in Japan. Mr. Al-Jof took the occasion of Mr. Shinawi’s recent visit to realize the visit to JCCP.
2. Environmental Management in the Refinery
Tour of JCCP training facilities
Saudi Arabia has plans to construct several large-scale refineries with 400,000 b/d-level capacities in various parts of the country, and in conjunction with these plans, there is a need to assess their environmental impact and to formulate a proper environmental management plan. To facilitate the smooth implementation of the refinery construction projects, the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources is aware that it needs to explore environmental management technologies employed around the world and to formulate a plan specifically suited to the state of affairs in Saudi Arabia. It also has strong interest in Japan’s environmental management technologies, and said that it would like its employees to participate in JCCP courses and hold technical exchanges in a broad range of topics.
H.E. Yahya J. Shinawi, Director General (front row, left), and Mr. Abdullah I. Al-Jof, Technical Training Coordinator (backrow, second from left), from the Eastern Province Branch of the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources
As Saudi Arabia is an important counterpart country to JCCP, we promised JCCP’s cooperation, giving an outline of the implementation of JCCP courses and taking the Saudi delegation on a tour of the training facilities in JCCP Headquarters. As a regular course on “Environmental Management for Refineries” is slated to be held in September, we also provided a detailed description of this course, as it pertains to Saudi Arabia’s current issues of interest.
In Saudi Arabia, refineries essentially form an entire town. As the governing authority of refineries, the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources must not only assess the impact of refinery waste on the surrounding water, air, and soil environments, but it is also responsible for regulating the output of domestic waste from employee housing belonging to the company, as well as medical waste produced by hospitals.
We understand that the ministry hopes to systematize its environmental management technologies and incorporate them in environmental laws and regulations in Saudi Arabia in the future, and intend to do all we can to contribute to their efforts.
<by Hisayoshi Tanda, Administration Dept.>
