Kuwaiti minister Safar opens oil, gas conference

Kuwait\'s Minister of Public Works Dr. Fadhel Safar inaugurated Wednesday the Environmental Management in Oil, Gas and Petrochemical Industries Conference Exhibition. \"Kuwaiti government is exerting strenuous efforts to curb pollution and its has already made great strides in this regard,\" Minister Safar said in the opening speech of the two-day event. He admitted that oil and gas industry, as well as refining, petrochemical and other related industries occupy the first place for the scale of negative impacts on environment all over the world. These impacts cover all spheres of environment; atmospheric, aquatic, terrestrial and ecosystem. \"Taking this into account, the Kuwaiti government is allocating a huge budget for protecting people and environment from the negative impacts of energy industries,\" Minister Safar said. He added that Kuwait has also applied a number of effective legislations ensure the safety of people and environment. The conference, organized by Promo Media International Kuwait, focuses into the future of environmental engineering technologies, environmental management practices, instruments and solutions for challenges facing the petroleum industry. The event will address the following general topics: pollution and monitoring; air pollution; oil spill containment; soil remediation treatment; gas flaring; noise control; water supply and wastewater treatment; sludge removal and tank cleaning solutions; impact, risk and life cycle assessment; green chemistry and catalysis; environmental integrated management and policy making; hazardous waste management; environmentally friendly materials; and modeling, simulation and optimization.