The energy industry is actively adopting a “sustainability agenda” in order to solve core economic problems, according to experts set to meet in Dubai later this year at the International Petroleum Technology Conference (IPTC).

IPTC 2007 A Changing World – Interdependence, Innovation and Implementation, the world’s foremost energy industry technical conference, will take place from December 4 to 6, 2007, at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre.

Energy companies have responded to these challenges with a range of initiatives. Shell, whose representatives co-chair two of the IPTC subcommittees, is committed to reducing emissions by 50 per cent by 2010. BP, whose executive Tony Hayward is IPTC co-chairperson, set up the BP Alternative Energy Business to manage its solar, wind and carbon capture operations.

Such developments also demonstrate that sustainability is a significant theme in discussions of reaching an industrial balance within the Gulf region. Business and government sectors alike are beginning to focus upon economic activities that can ensure growth without endangering the well being of future generations, said an official spokesman.

Used primarily in relation to the environment, the term “sustainability” describes a process where human productivity can continue indefinitely without exhausting the available resources.

The United Nations has declared a Decade of Education for Sustainable Development starting in January of 2005. For the energy industry, specific concerns with the depletion of fossil fuels coincide with recognition of the need to work in a sustainable fashion.

“The global energy industry has a duty to find sustainable ways of working, both in the location and extraction of our fossil fuels and in the procurement of energy sources in future,” said senior specialist HSE, Kuwait Oil Co, Fatima Abdali.

“Dubai provides an appropriate backdrop for this discussion, since the issue of sustainability has been widely reported in recent weeks. By bringing together many of the world’s foremost energy experts, we hope to clarify these issues through a discussion which is, fundamentally, about the future of the international energy sector and the future of humanity alike,” added Abdali.

Concerns with sustainability underline the importance of seeking new energy supplies while working to ensure that their detection and extraction is done in a sustainable manner. Such challenges will inform major sessions entitled “Energy Issues for a Changing World” and “Climate Change and Spirit of the Desert”.

In the keynote session, Professor Daniel Yergin will moderate a discussion featuring Abd Allah S. Al-Atif, senior vice-president Exploration and Producing, Saudi Aramco; Red Cavaney, president and CEO, American Petroleum Institute; and Chad Deaton, CEO, Baker Hughes.- TradeArabia News Service