Al-Mady would get our vote for man of the week

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It's been an interesting few days for the oil and gas industry in the Middle East as two big conferences drew delegates from all over the world.

The International Petroleum Technology Conference (IPTC) brought the big guns from the oilfield services sector to Doha in Qatar to discuss the industry and try and seal a deal or two for 2010. It's not often you see a big beast like Schlumberger CEO Andrew Gould walking around an exhibition hall chatting to a senior executive or two from Saudi Aramco before moving on to the ADNOC and Qatar Petroleum stands.

The general consensus at IPTC was that 2009 has turned out to be not so nearly as bad as everyone was expecting and there was some actual optimism floating around as talk turned to the next two to three years. And as mentioned earlier in the week, the food and drink on offer was seriously good. Not that ArabianOilandGas.com only thinks about its stomach you understand.

It could be argued that the Gulf Petrochemical and Chemical Association (GPCA) Forum that was held in Dubai had an even more impressive array of big hitters. The CEO's of all the major petrochemical companies from the region: SABIC, Borouge, Sipchem, Tasnee, Equate etc, were all happily mingling with the 1000 or so delegates who attended.

The consensus at the GPCA Forum was a little bit more reserved than at IPTC seeing as the petrochemical industry took a bit of a battering in 2009, especially the automotive sector. Still, most felt that the next two years would be a huge improvement and some even voiced concern that demand could even be back outstripping supply as early as 2015.

What struck most people at GPCA was just how approachable everyone seemed to be and others spoke of the family atmosphere that prevailed over the two days. Mohamed Al-Mady, CEO of SABIC and chairman of the GPCA, relished his role and would stop and chat to anyone who approached. If the ArabianOilandGas.com blog had a Industry Person of the Week award Mr Al-Mady would be picking up the gong. But, we don't so just give yourself a pat on the back from us instead sir.  

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