9th year running

This year, I have been privileged to be part of the 9th Asia Oil and Gas Conference (AOGC). This yearly event organised by Petronas congregates delegates from all over the world involved in the Oil and Gas business (government agencies, national oil companies, international oil companies, banks, etc) to mingle and listen to notable speakers / figures from the industry. The motto this year was "Rising to New Challenges" and among the topics were political & economic, challenges in the upstream & downstream, trading, natural gas and vision of the future.

Basically, I was part of the rapporteur (pronounced as ra-pour-ter) team - in case u don't know what that means, its actually the french word for one who is designated to give a report, as at a meeting. So together with 8 other people, I had to listen to all the speakers and summarize what they said. To my surprise, it was actually very interesting. Gist of the story / issues are that oil prices are high, China is becoming the powerhouse consumer for the industry, refining margins are basically low but picking up lately and natural gas is the way forward. Anyway, next year would be the 10th year, and they shall be hosting it at the new state-of-the-art KLCC convention center.

The two-days conference was basically like a crash course for me in understanding the current market and issues of the oil and gas industry which will be highly beneficial for my new job - did I mention that? I've got a new job at last! :-)