Methanex in Egypt, in partnership with the Egyptian Petrochemicals Holding Company (ECHEM), held the second edition of the annual Process Safety Management (PSM) Conference, titled “Modernizing Process Safety Management: Sharing the Vision” at the JW Marriott Hotel in Cairo, Egypt Oil & Gas reports.

The conference was attended by the Chairman of ECHEM, Saad Helal; Senior Vice President for Corporate Resources at Methanex Corporation, Brad Boyd; and Methanex Egypt CEO and Managing Director Mohamed Shindy, in addition to more than 400 of the petrochemicals industry and downstream sector leaders and top executives.

In the opening remarks, on behalf of the Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, Chemist Saad Helal said, “I am pleased to continue the dialogue we started last year around the important topic of Process Safety Management. This fits well with the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources’ vision to modernize the country’s oil, gas, and petrochemicals sector, and particularly the focus of H.E Eng. Tarek El Molla, the Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, on safety as a key priority.”

“This comes as a reflection of our commitment to sharing our own vision towards safer processes, assets, and operations,” Shindy said commenting on the conference. The CEO of Methanex Egypt emphasized that the conference comes as part of the company’s commitment to maintaining the dialogue around process safety within the Egyptian petrochemicals sector.

“Methanex Egypt and many petrochemicals companies are already on a journey to adopt and embed PSM within our systems. Process safety will only be achieved in our sector when we work together as industry leaders through standardizing sharing experiences and lessons learnt and starting rich discussions and initiatives that help create a solid PSM commitment and culture within our sector companies,” the CEO further added.

Keynote speakers included Ken Rivers, President of the Institution of Chemical Engineers and Chairman of the UK’s Control of Major Hazards (COMAH) Strategic Forum; Michael Broadribb, Senior Principal Consultant in BakerRisk’s Process Safety Group; Brad Boyd, Methanex Senior Vice President for Corporate Resources; and Jason Clement, Director of Process Safety Management at Methanex Corporation.

In the first session, Rivers highlighted the importance of the roles of leaders in driving PSM, while Michael Broadribb discussed the importance of learning from previous incidents. Afterwards, Boyd briefly presented the experience of Methanex in building organizational capability around PSM, and then Clement showcased the company’s PSM journey and its evolution as a learning organization.

In its first edition back in 2018, the event included key international speakers and was attended by over 200 industry leaders and executives from the Egyptian petroleum and petrochemicals sector. Methanex has worked with ECHEM since then to keep the momentum going through regular discussions and meetings around the topic, committing to organize the PSM conference annually to empower other sector leaders and executives with the needed PSM knowledge.

ECHEM was established in 2002 to manage and develop the petrochemicals industry in Egypt through new promising areas of investment. It aims to enhance the growth of the petrochemicals industry by implementing the National Petrochemicals Master Plan, with the target of realizing optimum utilization of natural gas in value-added products, which covers 14 complexes including 24 projects and 50 production units during the coming 20 years.

On the other hand, Methanex Egypt is an Egyptian methanol company, a joint venture (JV) between Methanex Corporation, a Vancouver-based, publicly-traded company and the world’s largest producer and supplier of methanol, and a number of Egyptian public entities.

Methanex owns a 50% interest in the JV, while the Egyptian Petrochemicals Holding Company (ECHEM) and the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS) each control a 12% stake. The Egyptian National Gas Company (GASCO) owns 9%, and the Arab Petroleum Investments Corporation (APICORP) holds a 17% stake.

Meanwhile, Methanex Egypt’s methanol production facility, located in Damietta on the Mediterranean Sea, is among the most energy-efficient methanol plants in the world. The plant has a production capacity of up to 1.3 million tons of methanol per year, supplying both the local and global markets.