A flying start for Tank Storage Middle East

Tank Storage Middle East, the inaugural two day conference and exhibition being held at Abu Dhabi’s National Exhibition Centre on 26 – 27 January 2015, is attracting major support from industry leaders. Over 70 leading companies have already booked to exhibit, senior decision makers from across the region have confirmed that they will be attending, and key organizations such as Emirates National Oil Company, Horizon Terminals, Oiltanking, Gulf Petrochem, Gulf Refining and Siddco Group are already supporting the event.

As a result of this support, Tank Storage Middle East will be the largest dedicated tank storage conference and exhibition in the region in its launch year.

Bahjat Adnan Tuffaha, General Manager at Gulf Refining Company said: “We are delighted to welcome a dedicated tank storage event to the Middle East. This will be a great opportunity to meet with manufacturers and also keep up to date with market movements via the conference”.

Muthukrishnan Prabakaran, Global Head of Terminals at Gulf Petrochem, said: “We are delighted to be partners of Tank Storage Middle East, sharing insights amongst the industry’s leading professionals, while continuing to meet new peers in the ever revolving Middle East tank storage region”.

According to easyFairs, the event’s organizers, the Middle East is a critical growth area for the storage terminal industry, with over 40 million m³ of independent tank storage in the region. The UAE alone is doubling its tank capacity over the coming years, with the port of Fujairah now second only to Singapore in terms of bunkering capacity.

Tank Storage Middle East has been launched in response to this demand from the industry. It will bring together terminal operators, ports, oil, gas, and chemical companies, EPCs and their many suppliers. The exhibition and conference will provide a platform for the latest product and service innovations to be showcased and an opportunity for industry peers to network, do business and update their knowledge.

StockExpo & Tank Storage Portfolio Event Director, Nick Powell, explained: “After extensive research, consulting with terminal operators, oil companies, key decision makers, keynote speakers and manufacturers, the feedback was unanimous from the bulk liquid storage market that they would love to see an easyFairs run tank Storage event in the Middle East. People feel we understand their sector and they trust us to deliver a format that works. That was great to hear. It gave us the green light to develop the show and further expand the portfolio beyond Europe and Asia”.

For some, the Middle East is a newer target market which the show will help them penetrate. For other, with well established sales operations in the Middle East, it is an opportunity to deepen business in the region.

Alec Keeler, Managing Director of Loadtec, said: “Having enjoyed over a decade of very successful business in the Middle East markets, without overt promotion, we felt that tank Storage Middle East would be an ideal opportunity to develop our regional presence, via a known and trusted facilitator – easyFairs – who have taken good care of use at their other shows”.

Full details of the conference have yet to be revealed, however confirmed speakers include: Zakee Saddiqi, Chairman and CEO of SIDDCO Group; Muthukrishnan Prabakan, Global Head of Terminals at Gulf Petrochem; Edwin Lammers, Commercial Director of the Port of Sohar; Malek Azizeh, Commercial Director at the Fujairah Oil Terminal; and Tarun Arora, General manager at GPS Chemoil. The speakers will explore the trends in the region and the macroeconomic issues driving storage needs. They will help delegates scope the market, identify the business opportunities and evaluate the latest technical developments impacting on productivity, security and safety.

Adapted from a press release by Emma McAleavey.

Read the article online at: https://www.hydrocarbonengineering.com/gas-processing/13102014/tank-storage-middle-east-1406/