3rd Annual Conference on Clean Power

PITTSBURGH: Deputy Premier and Minister of Energy and Industry, H E Abdullah bin Hamad Al Attiyah deputed a delegation led by Issa Shaheen Al Ghanim, Governor of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) and Director of Strategic Planning and Policy at Qatar Petroleum (QP), which embarked on a two-day visit to Pittsburgh ahead of the Pittsburgh Middle East Institute’s (PMEI) 3rd Annual Conference on “Clean Power: Pittsburgh and the Middle East” held recently.

Qatar’s delegation included Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulaziz Al Thani, Manager at QP’s investment arm, Qatar Petroleum International (QPI), Nasser Al Naimi, Commercial and Shipping Group Manager of RasGas, Sheikh Mansoor Al Thani, First Secretary at Qatar’s Embassy in Washington and other senior officials from Qatar’s energy industry.

“The purpose of this meeting is to express H E Abdullah bin Hamad Al Attiyah’s keenness to give his support to PMEI”, said Al Ghanim. Organised by PMEI, the meetings aim to “build relationships that will strengthen the ties between Pittsburgh and the Middle East”, added Simin Yazdergi Curtis, PMEI President and Founder, and Anahita Firouz Radjy, Senior Vice-President and Co-Founder.

Pittsburgh’s massive Marcellus Shale reserves were a pivotal issue throughout the visit. In the US energy industry as a whole, Marcellus Shale conjures hopeful and optimistic speculation that the US’ flailing economy welcomes with open arms. However, shale gas, which extends across the East Coast of the US and Pittsburgh houses the largest reserves of, is an area of uncertainty, Al Ghanim speculated.

“Future developments will be far distant from infrastructure, involve unknown geology, and will run into strong opposition on environmental grounds. On this view, shale gas is neither plentiful nor cheap,” explained Al Ghanim, confirming that Qatar’s natural gas reserves are highly “competitive because we (Qatar) have invested heavily in economies of scale in the flexibility to respond to changing markets; plus our gas reservoirs are rich in associated liquids.”

Estimates of the Marcellus Shale reserves vary dramatically. While some industry sources indicate that its reserves consist of 500 trillion cubic feet (tcf), others claim figures three times higher. “There is a distinct difference between proven, unproven, and recoverable reserves,” explained Atef Al Mohsin, Petroleum Engineering Manager of RasGas, to fellow engineering experts during the panel: “The Big Droll: Getting Marcellus Right”.

Marcellus Shale report

Penn State issued a report indicating that Marcellus Shale has the potential to create a wealth of jobs and hundreds of millions of local and state taxes. In the US’ struggling domestic economy, that is welcome news. Speculation was fuelled this week by Chevron’s $3.5bn buyout of US gas producer Atlas Energy.

However, the environmental impact of producing the gas in economically feasible ways may put a hamper on its progress. Hydraulic fracking, also known as “hydrofracking” or simply “fracking”, is a method of injecting water, sand, and chemicals into the wells which is the process for shale extraction requires. Co-panellist Kelvin Gregory, Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University addressed those issues by revealing that “abandoned mine draining water” can be used in the fracking process and recycled once it resurfaces.

Even so, Since shale gas is trapped in between a shallow formation spread across a vast area of earth, the economic and environmental impacts of shale drilling are taxing, explained Al Mohsin. Shale gas requires extensive drilling procedures and technology, therefore differing drastically from Qatar’s immense non-associated gas reserves, which it is able to extract efficiently and economically.

To be feasible, the project requires drilling of several wells across the reserves as the production rates decline rapidly from each well, Al Mohsin commented, while encouraging technology and research to be devoted to achieving economically feasible and environmentally sound solutions.

During a panel on “Renewable Energy: Revolution and Reality”, Fahad Al Tamimi, representing QP’s freshly formed New Energy group revealed that, “solar energy is the best candidate for renewable energy adaption in Qatar”. He invited research and development on new technology for cooling as buildings in the Gulf states consume copious amounts of energy for air conditioning.

The first day of the visit consisted of breakfast interaction with Pittsburgh’s business leaders followed by a meeting and guided tour of the University of Pittsburgh’s Swanson School of Engineering, observing the Annual Allegheny Conference, and concluded with dinner with the PMEI’s board members as well as delegations from the Sultanate of Oman and Pakistan at the historic Duquesne Club (established in 1873).

Dinner with Albright

Madeleine Albright, Former US Secretary of State, was the guest of honour at a dinner following the conference, held at the historic Carnegie Music Hall. She delivered a lecture to the high-level audience on her experiences where she described Qatar’s Education City as a prime example of how to enhance dialogue and build bridges in the Middle East.

“I have a message for the zealous terrorists”, she warned, “we are more zealous about making progress and more extreme about peacemaking. We are radical moderates!” she exclaimed, drawing in cheers and applause from the audience. “Islam is about peace,” she added, explaining that “terrorism is going against the very grain of Islam”.

“Qatar the first in the region to know where its going and figured out a game plan to get there”

Al Ghanim relayed Abdullah bin Hamad Al Attiyah’s “keenness to give his support to the PMEI Conference”, adding that Qatar is strongly committed to “strategically planned refining” as evidenced in its investments in gas-to-liquids (GTL) clean energy technology during breakfast hosted by Peter Kalis, Chairman and Global Managing Partner of K&L Gates LLP, in cooperation with the Allegheny Conference on Community Development headed by John Surma, Chair, and Dennis Yablonsky, CEO, amongst an intimate gathering of Pittsburgh’s leading business representatives.

John P Surma, CEO and Chairman of the US Steel Corporation, of the world’s top 10 largest steel operations in the world, and top North American tubular manufacturer revealed that the company is studying how to enhance co-operation with RasGas and other plants in the Gulf region as they are “really impressed with the extraordinary progress” that has been made in Qatar. “Qatar is probably the first state in the region that knows where it is going and has figured out a game plan to get there,” stated Ambassador Patrick N Theros, President and CEO of the US-Qatar Business Council (USQBC), former US ambassador to Qatar while adding that, “Pittsburgh is the birthplace for the hydrocarbon industry and is embarking on a new chapter”. From his experience in the Gulf, he remarked that the changes taking place in Qatar are not just physical but human, while praising H H Sheikah Mozah bint Nasser Al Missned’s vast investments in human capital to Qatar Foundation (QF) that simultaneously enhanced the literacy rate and improved women’s status.

Partnership in education

Pittsburgh, ranked “America’s Most Livable City” by Forces for two consecutive years, enjoys long-term ties with Qatar independent of the energy sector. Not only is Carnegie Mellon University Qatar (CMU-Q) graduated three classes from the school’s campus in Education City, Sheikha Mozah is the recipient of an honorary degree from CMU.

“It is through partnerships like this that our country and countries in the Middle East develop”, reflected Mark Nordenberg, Chancellor of the University of Pittsburgh.

Qatar’s Academic Bridge Programme, aimed at preparing high school graduates to enter private universities, was developed by Carnegie Learning in collaboration with CMU-Q, stated Dennis Ciccone, CEO of Carnegie Learning, while revealing the institution’s innovative ambition in creating products in Doha that translate software into Arabic by next summer.

At the University of Pittsburgh’s Swanson School of Engineering, the delegation was greeted by Gerald D Holder, Dean, and faculty members, followed by a guided tour of the universities petroleum engineering facilities. Potential educational partnerships were discussed pertaining to engaging Qatari students in the programme.

“Energy is defining the social, political, and economic challenges to the world,” he said, while pointing out that increasing the efficiency of fossil based energy by just 10 percent, it would have more of an impact on environmental friendliness than increasing the output of renewable energy.

Health-care ties

Currently, there are 2,600 students enrolled in the school, many of whom go on to work in ExxonMobil, Marathon, Westinghouse, Dominion, Eaton Corp, and Consol amongst others.

Even before the establishment of CMU-Q, Pittsburgh has played a vital role in Qatar’s health-care sector through its organizations Allegheny International and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC). The latter formed a partnership with Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) over five years ago in order to provide training, education, and other technical expertise to the emergency medical system. The latter worked in HMC for years before that, and the two entities are continuing to vie for Qatar’s affections to date.

“We had a long history with Qatar”, said Dr Amr El Refai, Associate Professor of Surgery and Chairman of Allegheny International, who partnered with Qatar’s Ministry of Health through several years of its reform.

As such, “long-term friendship” was a prevailing theme throughout the Qatari delegation’s visit to Pittsburgh. It became clear that this would be the first of many visits strengthening the relationship between Qatar and Pittsburgh. While Qatar initially sought Pittsburgh’s advice on enhancing its healthcare and educational sectors, Pittsburgh is now seeking Qatar’s expertise and market power in the energy sector. Beyond energy, Pittsburgh is not only welcoming Qatari interest in its budding shale gas opportunities but is looking to Qatar for expanding its investments as well.

The Peninsula