Under The Patronage of His Excellency Mr.Jabbar Ali Hussein Allaibi, Minister of Oil – Iraq, the Society of Petroleum Engineers International (SPEI) held an SPE symposium under the title of "IRAQ – Petroleum Potentiality and Future of Energy" with coordination with SPE Baghdad Section.
The event was attended by the advanced staff of the Ministry of Oil and many experts in the oil industry represented by His Excellency the Oil Minister, Mr. Jabbar Ali Hussein Allaibi, Ministry of Oil consultant for Energy Affairs, general inspector of Ministry of Oil, Director Generals for national oil companies, Deans of Iraqi universities, Heads of petroleum departments in Iraqi universities, Academics, International Oil Companies, Engineers, all of Iraq SPE sections, most of SPE student chapters in Iraq and many workers in the oil industry.
Dr. Rami Harkouss, Faculty Advisor, and Mr. Hussein Mhanna, President of Beirut Arab University SPE Student Chapter, were invited to attend the Symposium as representatives of the chapter which belongs to Baghdad Section.
The Chapter's attendance was fruitful. Dr. Rami Harkouss held many meetings with the Authorities in Iraq (Petroleum Research & Development Center, Baghdad University, Ministry of Oil) and discussed all the possibilities that can be done to develop the Chemical & Engineering Department of Beirut Arab University whether by providing Internships for students and the Support for the curriculum and adding references benefiting from the experience Iraq has in the oil and gas industry.
In addition, Dr Rami discussed with Dr. Karim Alwan, Director of the PRDC - Iraq, and with Mrs. Michel Boey, the Events Director at SPE, the outlines to probably organize a special Workshop through the SPE- Middle East at Beirut Arab University in the presence of International Oil Companies specially that Lebanon is being an attraction zone for them. Then, Mr. Hussein discussed few logistics points with Mrs. Janeen Megahed, Events Manager at SPE about that.
During the Symposium, Dr. Harkouss had two direct and live interventions towards International Oil Companies. The first was geopolitical through Halliburton about the ability to form the Legislations of oil and gas related to Lebanon compared with the regional countries and, the second was technical through PRDC discussing some critical parameters to enhance the production of gasoline using zeolite catalyst. Besides, Dr. Harkouss had an interview with Iraqi Tv to talk more about the Lebanese Oil situation and Beirut Arab University efforts via the Chemical and Petroleum engineering department in a country that lacks the oil and gas industry.
The Symposium was a chance also for the SPE Chapters and Baghdad Section to meet for the first time in order to share ideas and discuss the suggestions as asked by SPE. Dr. Karim Alwan, Chairperson of SPE Baghdad, opened the meeting talking about the chapters and giving the distinction for Beirut Arab University SPE SC for being the most active chapter in the last year after their evaluation. Then, Mr. Mhanna had his key note to mention the value of SPE and how to deal with the chapters by listing the challenges and ways to overcome. Dr. Harkouss followed him to highlight the importance of the cooperation between chapters and the section through providing Interns, summer trainings, and Speakers for the events. Finally, Dr. Alwan invited all the chapters to cooperate together and promised to provide all available needs.
Notice that Dr. Harkouss, on behalf of BAU, congratulated Baghdad Section at the end of the Symposium for this achievement and expressed how much thankful we are for the good welcome.
The end was taking a group photo and earning the certificates of continuing 1.6 units (16 hours) in the SPE Continuing Education Units (CEU)