Eight years ago ADNOC expressed an interest in having training in Sour Gas Management issues for its employees. Professor Ed Wichert, President of SOGAPRO, Canada and a leading international expert in this area was invited to Abu Dhabi and gave three one-day training seminars on Sour Gas Treating, Sulphur Recovery and Acid Gas Compression and Injection. These seminars were well attended and successful.

The seminars were then held in Doha, again with the same success.

From these training activities it became clear that an international meeting looking at the wider implications for the Middle East was required and thus SOGAT 2004 took place in Doha.

SOGAT 2005 took place in Abu Dhabi with the full support of ADNOC, Qatargas, Shell, Schlumberger, SajGas, ADGAS and GLE. Two workshops on AGI and Sulphur Chemistry and Technology, the latter presented by Professor Peter Clark of ASRL, preceded the SOGAT Conference where 17 presentations took place. The Conference was supported by an exhibition of 11 companies and attendance to SOGAT 2005 increased by some 28%.

An increase in interest and attendance was witnessed at SOGAT 2007 in May, again with full ADNOC support and the sponsorship of Qatargas, Shell, Black & Veatch, Washington Group, ASRL, GLE and ENERSUL. The workshops were repeated and SOGAT 2007 saw nearly 200 attendees listening to presentations from 11 countries in the 3rd International SOGAT Conference. 13 exhibitors supported the Conference and a new feature was the introduction of the International CO2 Forum.

This first Forum, attended by 86 participants, debated 6 presentations covering CO2 Recovery, Carbon Capture and Storage, CO2 EOR and Geological Storage. The Forum was a useful and important addition to the growth of SOGAT.

SOGAT 2008 took place with similar support to the previous year yet with an increase in all aspects including the official backing of StatoilHydro, ConocoPhillips and Occidental. The week’s event was attended by over 400 participants from 20 countries. The success of the two regular workshops increased with maximum attendance, the exhibition venue was fully booked, 18 presentations were presented in the SOGAT Conference and the number of presentations in the 2nd International CO2 Forum also increased.

Leading the discussion at SOGAT 2008

A feature of SOGAT 2009 was the content and level of presentations at the 3rd CO2 Forum where for the first time ADCO outlined their plans for their CO2-EOR project.

Another first was the FLEXSORB Workshop delivered by ExxonMobil and a prestigious group of contributors from Fluor, Nalco, Worley Parsons and Nova.

Johnny Johnson and Dick Wissbaum of WGI Middle East also delivered yet another first – their Workshop on Sulfur Recovery, Processing and Handling which was of upmost interest to the ADNOC Group in particular and warmly received by all.