21-23 November, 20236th Kuwait Corrosion Conference & Exhibition

Yehia Khoja currently leads the AI and Business Development General Department at the Ministry of Energy. His professional experience prior includes working at Saudi Aramco, Amazon, and NVIDIA. 

 He's a member of several organizations such as World Energy Council Future Energy Leaders, MIT Tech Review list of Arab AI experts, and Misk Leaders 2030. He holds an MBA and Master's in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University.

Mr. Hayden is the CTO of Engineering Director, a boutique consulting firm located in Evanston, Illinois, USA. Before discovering his passion for corrosion, Tom worked on machine learning and artificial intelligence at large consumer technology companies, including facebook and GrubHub. He's been published multiple times in the AMPP Conference and Materials Performance (MP) and his career focuses around bringing innovation to the corrosion industry in an impactful but safe manner.

Rami is a passionate advocate for leveraging technology to drive social progress and enhance human experiences. Holding a B.Sc. in Computer Science from  American University of Beirut (AUB)

He is an accomplished Geographic Information Systems (GIS) specialist with more than 20 years of professional experience in Canada and the Middle East. He worked on complex projects across the Gulf region that included integration of asset management and GIS systems.

Rami supported managers to adopt new technology in their organizations and lead change successfully. He designed many technical courses and business workshops during his tenure at Esri Canada, with one notable offering being the groundbreaking "Change Management for ArcGIS Implementations."

Rami's journey is one defined by his relentless dedication to the synergy of technology, social advancement, and the art of effective transformation.

He joined PDO (Petroleum Development Oman) in 2018 as an Integrity and RBI (Risk-Based Inspection) Engineer. His work involves managing the integrity of PDO's diverse assets, from gas to oil facilities, across various operating conditions. He is certified API 510 Pressure Vessel Inspector and API 653 Aboveground Storage Tank Inspector, committed to upholding industry standards.

Currently, he serve as the Custodian of PDO's Corrosion & Inspection Management System (CIMS), essential for asset integrity management. Additionally, he lead a team focused on maintaining technical data integrity in projects and operations, ensuring high-quality outcomes.

Mandated by his role as well as his interest, he is heavily involved in digitalization and business improvement.

Michael S. O’Brien currently serves on the Board of Directors of AMPP (The Association for Materials Protection and Performance). As Certified Protective Coating Specialist, he has served as an expert on coatings, coating failures, and coating inspection related matters. Mike O’Brien is a Lead Instructor in the internationally recognized, NACE Coating Inspector Program (CIP). Mike O’Brien’s experience includes investigating premature failures on numerous substrates including, but not necessarily limited to ferrous metal, galvanized metal, ductile iron, concrete, drywall, stainless steel and wood.

Mohammad Hadi Hassan Abul is the Head of Business Development for Drones & Robotics, ZainTech

EDUCATION:  Master's degree in Innovation & Artificial Intelligence (Ongoing)

  Bachelor’s degree in Business & Political Science

YEARS OF EXPERIENCE: 15 years

NOTABLE RELEVANT PROJECTS:

·       •Inspection of 300 Telecom Towers – Zain Kuwait

·       •Bait Al Drone Contract – Kuwait National Petroleum Company

·       •Drone & Crawler Services – Sea Water Network Rehabilitation Project – EQUATE Turnaround 2023

·       •Digital Twin – KIPIC LNG plant

·       •Digital Twin – CFP Project in KNPC

·       •Digital Twin & Internal Visual Inspection – KAFCO

·       •Ground Flare & Tank Visual Inspections – Sadara

Andy is a 35 year veteran of the high performance coatings industry. Working with some of the industry’s leading manufacturers of Intumescent coatings, his roles have included commercial, marketing & General Management positions in both Europe and the Middle East 

Intumescent Fire Protection coatings have featured significantly in Andy’s career and he is now category responsible - Hydrocarbon Fire, for Jotun AS (Norway) a leading supplier of coatings to the oil & gas, petrochemical and energy industries.

Ammar AlMousa brings over 10 years of experience in Automation, excelling in roles such as Sales, Business Development, and Project Consultancy for Digitalization solutions. Currently, he spearheads the business development efforts for Emerson's Corrosion & Erosion portfolio under the umbrella of digital transformation in the Middle East. Leveraging his expertise in IIoT sensors, Chemistry, and Advanced Analytics, Ammar advises clients on their Corrosion Monitoring digitalization strategies. His primary focus is expanding Emerson's presence in key markets across the Middle East, specifically in the oil and gas, refining, petrochemical, and utilities industries. He holds a degree in Chemistry from the University of California Santa Barbara, in USA.

• Founder and General manager of startup company MEMOC Kuwait since June 2022 and have undertaken Internal Corrosion monitoring projects with major players like SLB, SPETCO etc.
• Worked in KOC for twenty-three years and retired as Senior Engineer – Corrosion in June 2021
• Corrosion Consultant in key areas related to enhancing asset integrity in oil sector.
• Senior Technical Professional with over 3 decades of rich national & international experience in Developing & Implementing New Methodology, Strategic Consulting, across wide domain of Corrosion, Internal Corrosion.
• Experience in performing Root Cause Analysis, Failure Analysis, Material Selection &

Heavy Engineering Industries and Shipbuilding Company. K.S.C (Public) -HEISCO is based in Kuwait local company. He is a graduated in Mechanical engineer with M.B.A(Project Management) and he has 28 Years plus in Oil & Gas Refinery Construction (Oil Storage Tanks, Process piping, Power piping, Pipeline and Pressure vessels/Heat Exchangers), Manufacturing of equipment’s, Ship building/Repairs and Inservice inspections/NDT at India, Dubai & Kuwait. He has seven ASNT NDT level-3 (VT/RT/UT/MT/LT/PT/ET) certification holder, API-U Lead auditor , AWS-Senior CWI, Lead Auditor -ISO-9001: QMS/ISO- 17025/ISO-14001 EMS and ISO-45001 OHSMS, Auditor in API-Q1 & API-Q2, API-510/API-653/API-570 and IRT NDT Level-1. He is working as Manager -Quality Operations at Quality Assurance and Quality Control Department Corporate level (QA&QC). He is a member of ASNT, AWS, API, NACE-SSPC AMPP organization and registered professional engineer at Kuwait Society of Engineers and Life membership of AOCP-India. He is also NACE-SSPC-AMPP Accreditation U.S.A coordinator for company certification as well as ABS/LR/DNV-GL/KR/BV /NKK Classification society certification coordinator -Welding and NDT.

He is currently working as ASNT section chair (Education Committee/Secretary ) at Kuwait chapter since 2009.He presented technical talks more than thirty-two at UAE, KUWAIT, Bahrain, and India NDT Conference/seminars. He was participating ASNT section council meeting/American Society of Quality (ASQ-U.S. A: Higher Education Technical committee- Since 2021), distinction and continued significant contributions to the advancement of nondestructive testing/evaluation/ industrial engineering and Painting/Coating application

Mohana Murali has been the Technical Business Development Manager of USTS since May 2019 and Murali is responsible for managing the technical support, business, and product development activities across Middle east and North Africa

Mohana Murali has 25 years of international experience in Polymer and O & G industry, working in a wide variety of positions ranging from Senior Technical Services Manager at Borouge Pte Ltd, to senior management roles at major polymer pipe produces in the region, focusing the development of Non-Metallic applications in industrial and Oil ang gas segments.

Mohana Murali holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Production Engineering

Aman has over 25 years of experience in the corrosion control industry and is based in the Middle East. Aman has been involved in cathodic protection, thermoplastic linings and field joint coatings in the Middle East, South East Asia and the Indian Subcontinent regions.  Aman holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and is AMPP certified Sr. Corrosion Technologist and CP Technologist.  Aman currently serves as the Director for Sales & Marketing and is responsible for the development of the field joint coating business in the Eastern Hemisphere for Aegion Coating Services.

Mike Kirkwood has over 30 years of experience in the nuclear, power generation, water and oil and gas industries. He is a subject matter expert (SME) in all forms of structural integrity including applications in drilling equipment, pressure vessels, offshore structures and with a specialty in pipelines. He is the author of many international papers on structural integrity, risk and pipeline inspection, repair and rehabilitation. Mike holds a doctor of philosophy (PhD) in pipeline integrity, a master of business administration (MBA), a bachelor in engineering (BEng) and is a Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (FIMechE) as well as a chartered engineer (CEng).

I currently work as an Inspection Engineer in the Inspection & Corrosion (Pipelines) Team at Kuwait Oil Company, KOC. I have a bachelor degree with honors in Mechanical Engineering from The University of North Carolina at Charlotte, USA. I joined KOC in January 2019 as an inspection engineer under development. I currently hold two AMPP certificates (CP-1 and ILI). In addition, I have the following NDT level-II certificates from ASNT (MPT, UT, LPT) and a visual welding inspector certificate from CSWIP. 

Michael Fischer has spent over twenty years developing software solutions for pipeline asset integrity and risk management. Mr. Fischer holds a BSc. degree in Computer Science, with a focus on databases and AI, from the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada. Currently a Senior Software Engineer with NDT Global. During his career, Michael has worked on analysis solutions for many different Inline Inspection techniques and technologies, including Magnetic Flux, Inertial Navigation (INS), Ultrasonic Crack/Wall Thickness measurement, Phased Array, as well as the latest Acoustic Resonance research. Successful integrity programs also require access to external data input.

James is the Managing Director of Cokebusters, a technology company specialising in the mechanical cleaning and intelligent inspection of small diameter piping networks and pipelines.

A metallurgist and graduate of the Corrosion & Protection Centre in 1993, James’ career started in civil and structural engineering with Mott MacDonald before moving on to the American Bureau of Shipping in 2001 and Petrofac in 2011.  Latterly James led Petrofac’s Global Asset Management Consulting business.  He was invited to take the lead at Cokebusters in 2020.

As well as a deep involvement in corrosion control, James has also managed a number of multi-disciplined projects on and offshore.  He has worked not only throughout UK/Europe, but extensively in the Middle East. 

James is a Chartered Engineer and Fellow of the Institute of Corrosion.

Ashish Khera, P.Eng. with expereince of more than 20 years in the areas of Pipeline Integrity Assessment has included assessment of 1,000+ pipelines, 80+ programs and 70+ publications- mostly case studies of live jobs and many from GCC region.

Key areas for specialization has been in the latest developments and successful applications of the best practises related to External Corrosion Direct Assessment (ECDA), Stress Corrosion Cracking Direct Assessment (SCCDA) and Internal Corrosion Direct Assessment (ICDA) programs.  

Joseph Mazzella currently serves as the CEO of Engineering Director, Inc. (EDI), and has over 30 years of experience in the engineering of high-performance coating systems. Prior to his leadership role at EDI, Mr. Mazzella held the position of Director of Engineering for North America at AkzoNobel Coatings. Additionally, he worked for McGraw-Hill Construction as the Publisher of AIA and ENR magazines. Mr. Mazzella has a diverse background that straddles both engineering and publishing.

He has over 28 years of profound experience in the Oil and Gas sector, commencing my journey as a Production Trainee at Petroleum Development Oman, to being the Head of Static Equipment Integrity & Inspection Today.

His tenure has been largely devoted to overseeing pipeline and static equipment inspection, corrosion management, and maintenance activities, including routine and non-routine repairs. He has played a vital role in project delivery, contributing to both conventional and major projects across all phases. Notably, he led the Off-Plot Pipeline Construction for PDO's Rabab Harweel Integrated Project.

Presently, he lead the largest team in the Materials, Corrosion, and Integrity department, focusing on Static Equipment Integrity and Inspection. We provide critical technical services to assets and projects throughout all stages, ensuring equipment integrity and monitoring. He also manage inspection contracts and resources for two significant contracts.

Director of Operations – Drones and Robotics 

Dr. Rihan is a Research Scientist in Petroleum Research Center at Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research. He received his Ph.D. in Corrosion Engineering from Monash University, Australia, in 2005. He has extensive experience in the corrosion and materials performance. Dr. Rihan has numerous publications in international journals and conference proceedings, covering wide areas of corrosion, such as stress corrosion cracking, sulfide stress cracking, H₂S/CO₂ corrosion in oil and gas industry, erosion-corrosion, mechanical design and construction of corrosion testing rigs, emulsion and multiphase flow in petroleum pipelines, corrosion inhibitors, and galvanic corrosion. He has also patents dealing with stress corrosion cracking devices. Dr. Rihan has extensive cooperation with industry. He was the Lead Scientist and Principal Investigator for several research projects.

Joined to KNPC in 2017, as a Process Engineer in Technical Services Department at MAB Refinery – Kuwait.

• 6 years in Sulfur Block Group.

• 1 year in Diesel Hydrotreater Group.

• Operational Training (Site & DCS) in Sulfur Block & Diesel Hydrotreater at KNPC MAB refinery.

• Member in KNPC’s Innovation Committee: 1st Innovation sector in K-companies whereas several activities has been organized & heled, such as Hackathon, Refinerython, Ideas Together Campaign & Innovation Studio.

• Participated in two GDA conferences: Kuwait in 2019 & Bahrain in 2023.

• Presented a Technical Paper of “Flooding in TGT Reactor in MAB Refinery” in the 19th Kuwait-Japan Symposium at KISR

Graduated in Metallurgical & Material Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Roorkee, (year 2000-2004). Having 19 years of total industry experience out of which 17 years of core plant Inspection experience for Oil & Gas refinery & KOC facilities and 2 years of Research & Development in stainless steel manufacturing company.

KEY SKILLS:

Plant inspection for Static equipment and piping, fitness for service evaluation, Risk based inspection, Failure analysis, damage mechanism, material selection, Knowledge of International inspection codes & standards, NDT techniques, welding inspection (QA/QC).

MAJOR ACHIEVEMENTS:-

Comprehensive experience of routine Inspection activities and Turnaround Inspection challenges of equipment & piping of Oil & Gas upstream & downstream facilities. Adept in Risk based inspection and developing inspection plans accordingly. Developed in-house Integrity management module under Management Information system (MIS). Co-author of 03 Technical paper/presentation presented in NACE and API conferences. Performed in depth failure analysis and corrosion studies with multidisciplinary approach, in association with subject experts, for assessment of root cause. Presented several technical/awareness sessions summarizing industry experience and specific case studies to a wider professional platform. Keeping abreast with latest inspection techniques and implemented advance NDT techniques for beneficial impact on asset integrity and inspection cost optimization. Imparted training to young engineers on inspection practices, codes and standards, NDT fundamentals and mentored them for higher positions.

Mabyn Thomas is a Chemical Engineer with over 19 years of experience in the upstream and downstream Oil & Gas industry with some of the leading Oil Field Operators, engineering consultancies, EPC firms and petroleum laboratories.

He joined Veolia Water Technologies & Solutions in 2016. As a product application lead for HPI applications he gives technical support to customers and commercial team in Middle East and North Africa and is based in Dubai (UAE). Prior to joining Suez WTS, he held positions in

•               • Maersk Oil Qatar – Process Technical Authority

•               • Xodus Group – Principal Process Engineer

•               • Dodsal Engineering & Construction – Process Engineer

•               • Schlumberger – Reservoir Fluids Analyst

•               • Intertek Caleb Brett – Chemist.

Expertise includes Refinery Unit Operations & Chemical Treatment, Process Engineering, Flow Assurance, Reservoir engineering, Process Simulations, fluid dynamics, conceptual engineering, FEED, and detailed design Engineering with a strong proficiency in simulation tools.

Mabyn holds a Bachelor of Chemical Engineering (B.Tech) from University of Kerala.

After 17 years working with Research and Development Center for Oil and Gas “LEMIGAS” Indonesia, Ahmad Fahrizal has continued the job carrier to Innovation &Technology Group of KOC as a Senior Engineer Technology Management with a major function and responsibility in supervisor of studies or pilot projects related to new technology proposals at the field operations in order to improve and enhance KOC upstream activities.

He participates as a member of AMPP Organization (NACE International before merger) and SPE (Society of Petroleum Engineers) since 2012 involved in some courses and certified trainings. 

A Senior Petroleum Engineer with over 11 years of hands-on experience in the oil and gas industry. Proven expertise as an interventions and production engineer at the Greater Burgan Field especially in Ahmadi and Burgan areas, focusing on optimizing production, accurate production forecasting, and careful planning and execution of well interventions.

Demonstrated leadership in leading the end-to-end process of drilling new wells, from strategic planning to successful completion. Proficiently managed diverse completion designs from conception to execution, while addressing water encroachment and well abandonment challenges. Overcame a variety of operational complexities including formation obstacles, cementation issues, fishing, completion designs, sidetracking, and P&A. Skilled at the daily monitoring and strategic planning of upcoming well interventions, from initial issue identification to precise intervention program and concluding in comprehensive post-job result analysis.

Mr. Tariq Kamshad having total 22 years experience in oil and gas industry KOC and KGOC , Working as Senior Chemical Treatment & Metallurgy Engineer  Wafra-Joint operation.

Got BEng Honors in Chemical Engineering and Processing from University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, United Kingdom

Additional Profession Certifications:

Ashish Khera, P.Eng. with expereince of more than 20 years in the areas of Pipeline Integrity Assessment has included assessment of 1,000+ pipelines, 80+ programs and 70+ publications- mostly case studies of live jobs and many from GCC region.

Key areas for specialization has been in the latest developments and successful applications of the best practises related to External Corrosion Direct Assessment (ECDA), Stress Corrosion Cracking Direct Assessment (SCCDA) and Internal Corrosion Direct Assessment (ICDA) programs.  

Olivér Mohácsi is a computer science engineer with a robust background in the cathodic protection industry spanning since 2004. His expertise lies in diagnostics, encompassing tasks such as close interval potential and direct current voltage gradient surveys, along with design, engineering, installation, and maintenance of cathodic protection systems.

In 2006, he made significant strides in the Kuwait Oil Company's fuel network rehabilitation through innovative development initiatives. His journey continued with pioneering contributions, as I spearheaded the design and implementation of data management and remote monitoring systems for the Kuwait Oil Company from 2012 onwards.

Further extending my impact, he ventured into international collaborations, embarking on a pilot project in 2019 with TIGAZ & E-On in Hungary. The project entailed the creation of a cutting-edge remote monitoring system for gas pipeline networks in Hungary, showcasing my dedication to driving technological advancements within the energy sector.

Corrosion and metallurgy engineer in KNPC MAA for 4.5 years, API 571 certified

Mechanical engineer degree with more than six years experience in oil and gas industry as a corrosion engineer.

Participated in various corrosion related activities including corrosion monitoring, failure analysis, and fitness for service. API 571 certified.

More than 17 years of experience in both upstream and downstream industries in oil/gas sector in  Asset Integrity & Risk Based Inspection. Presently  working as Inspection Engineer  with  Inspection & Corrosion –S&E Team of Kuwait Oil Company

Dr. K. Ravindranath is a Research Scientist in the Petroleum Research Center at the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research. He has a Ph.D. in Metallurgical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, India. He has over 30 years of research and industrial experience in the fields of corrosion and metallurgy. His areas of expertise include oil industry corrosion, corrosion of stainless steels, structure-property correlations, and failure analysis. 

Dr Ali Moosavi has a PhD in Corrosion Science and Engineering from the University of Manchester in the UK. He has over 40 years of experience, in Europe and the Middle East in Corrosion Control and Materials Selection consultancy and Integrity Management

Israa Mohammad having graduated from Kuwait University with Bachelor in Mechanical Engineering 2014, took up as a Corrosion Engineer working in ICMP department which is part of Inspection and corrosion team in Kuwait Oil Company with 8 years’ experience. She has conducted failure analysis and also actively participated in technical seminars with in the company.

Mohammad. Al-Muwail has Bachelor of Science (Mechanical Engineering). Currently working as Team Leader Process Safety Managment (Gas) at Kuwait Oil Company. He has 22 years of rich experience in field inspection ensuring the mechanical integrity of oil & gas gathering facilities with a primary focus on pressure vessels, piping and storage tanks.

Kiran Kumar Yanmangandla is a graduate in Bachelor of Technology (Metallurgy and Materials Engineering) from National Institute of Technology, Warangal, India. Currently working in Inspection & Corrosion Team in Kuwait Oil Company. He has 15+ years of experience in mechanical integrity management of refinery facilities and oil& gas gathering facilities. He is working professional with certifications in API 580 Risk Based Inspection, API 571 Corrosion and Materials & API 510 Pressure Vessel Inspector.

Fabio Fata is the Sales Manager of Flyability Middle East and Southern Europe, responsible for leading the sales and marketing initiatives in the region. Fabio has a long sales international experience, with a specialization in the middle east and LATAM regions, extensive language skills and data analysis skills. 

Deepak Sharma is holding the position of Sr. Technical Team Leader – Downstream, based out of Dubai. Deepak is a chemical engineer with over 26 years of experience in the downstream Oil & Gas industry. He has supported the downstream process application businesses over the eastern hemisphere with various organizations & worked closely in the areas of corrosion, fouling, emulsion breaking & additives at refineries, petrochemicals & derivatives. Apart from leading the team of  Technical Experts, he works on innovations & product management along with designing basic concept for Capex units.  

Hamad Bumaryoum is a Rotating Equipment Engineer at KIPIC LNGI. He earned his bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Dayton. Since graduating, Hamad has spent two years at KIPIC LNGI, where he applies his technical knowledge and skills on a daily basis.