BIOGRAPHY

Akhan currently serves as Head of Sales and Business Development at APM Terminals Poti, where he is focused on advancing the port’s strategic role in strengthening the trade connectivity across South Caucasus and Central Asia. His work is centred on positioning Poti as a key gateway for regional and intercontinental cargo flows, supporting the development of multimodal transport solutions and deeper integration between maritime, rail and inland logistics networks.

BIOGRAPHY

Serikzhan Yermekov graduated from the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) in 2019 with a degree in Energy Engineering. In 2021, he joined Tengizchevroil, where he has accumulated five years of experience in the Process Engineering Department across several technical roles. His work has included flaring calculations, sour gas amine treatment, and he is currently engaged in crude stabilization position. His professional focus is on process performance, operational efficiency, and technical compliance within large-scale oil and gas facilities.

BIOGRAPHY

Saad Faihan Surour Almutairi is a Process Engineer with nine years of experience in sour gas and sour condensate processing, acid gas handling, sulfur recovery, tail gas treatment, sour water treatment, and gas dehydration. He has broad expertise across upstream and downstream refining in the oil and gas industry, with strengths in process optimization, troubleshooting, operational excellence, and energy efficiency. Saad also supports plant turnarounds, technical studies, and capital projects, while providing management with analytical insight on operational performance, production KPIs, and process improvement opportunities.

BIOGRAPHY

Aizat Kaparova is an Overseas Marketing Manager at Unilink Commodities Trading Platform DMCC. Based at the company’s China headquarters, she is responsible for business development and market expansion across Central Asia, with a particular focus on sulphur, cobalt, and other metals in the international market.

BIOGRAPHY

Carmella is a Lead Technology Engineer in the Low Carbon Solutions & Gas Business Division at Axens with a focus on the Carbon Capture and Gas Solutions product line for process licensing. She has 20 years experience in the natural gas industry having worked most her career in Canada as a process engineer in gas plant design in multiple companies before moving to France. Carmella currently works on Gas Sweetening and Pre-combustion Carbon Capture technologies.  
Carmella holds a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from the University of Calgary in Canada.

BIOGRAPHY

Kaiyr is a Chemical Engineer with 13+ years of industry experience. His focus areas are commissioning and start-up of amine and sulphur units. He has performed engineering, testing, commissioning, start-up, and troubleshooting of amine treating and sulphur recovery systems for more than 30 production facilities in over 20 countries. Kaiyr is a co-author of several papers which are published in Hydrocarbon Processing and Sulphur Magazine.

BIOGRAPHY

Dr Harrisson has worked on CRU’s Sulphur and Sulphuric Acid analysis since joining the company in early 2011 and is Head of the Sulphur team. He also works across other nutrient areas, including both market and cost analysis. Prior to joining CRU, Dr Harrisson completed a PhD in Industrial Chemistry at Durham University.

BIOGRAPHY

Dr Harrisson has worked on CRU’s Sulphur and Sulphuric Acid analysis since joining the company in early 2011 and is Head of the Sulphur team. He also works across other nutrient areas, including both market and cost analysis. Prior to joining CRU, Dr Harrisson completed a PhD in Industrial Chemistry at Durham University.

BIOGRAPHY

Manish Mehta is a Technical Marketing Manager at BASF’s OASE® Gas Treatment Team. In his current role, Manish has been involved in Marketing, technology selection and proposal management of BASF’s OASE yellow portfolio for the Middle East and Central Asia region.   Over the past 18 years, he has handled various positions related to Design, commissioning, troubleshooting and product selection for both Solvent and Adsorbent based technologies in various hydrocarbon stream applications.  
Manish is a Chemical Engineer by education from Thapar University India and is an author for several technical papers and patent submissions.

BIOGRAPHY

Feras Kordi is a Process Engineer at BASF’s OASE® Gas Treatment Team. In his role, he provides technical support to gas treatment plants in various segments in natural gas and refinery industries, ranging from LNG treatment to Sulfur Selective and CO2 capture applications. He specializes on Technology selection, design and modeling, commissioning, and operation troubleshooting. Feras has worked previously in a major oil and gas EPC company, primarily in natural gas processing, refineries, and petrochemical complexes. He holds a Bachelors and Masters of Science degrees in Chemical Engineering from the American University of Sharjah, and has been part of multiple scientific conferences regarding his research in bioenergy and reactor modelling.

BIOGRAPHY

Robert Cable is the Chief Executive Officer of ElectroSep Inc., where he leads the development and deployment of advanced chemical separation technologies. He brings extensive experience from global chemical manufacturing organizations, including SI Group and Baker Hughes, and has led cross-functional innovation programs spanning multiple product lines and international markets. His work has focused on integrating R&D, manufacturing, and commercial strategy to deliver scalable, differentiated solutions across oil and gas, fuels and lubricants, and water treatment applications. Dr. Cable holds a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Texas A&M University and has led the development and commercialization of multiple award-winning technologies.

BIOGRAPHY

Stefaan Gouhie is a mechanical engineer who currently serves as the Regional Sales Manager for CSI Ametek, where he focuses on solving heat-related plugging and corrosion issues in the European refining and petrochemical industry.

He has developed expertise in good heating practices through numerous site visits and hands-on installations over more than a decade in the sulphur industry.

BIOGRAPHY

BIOGRAPHY

Mathias Innerkofler holds a Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Vienna University of Technology and an MBA in Business Administration from California Lutheran University. He has professional experience in combustion engineering, business development, and project management for industrial plants and process technologies. Mathias currently works as a Business Development Manager at kvt.technology (Kanzler Verfahrenstechnik GmbH), focusing on wet sulphuric acid technologies and sustainable process solutions.

BIOGRAPHY

BIOGRAPHY

Adilet Nashirbayev is a process engineer with a chemistry background in catalysis and reaction kinetics, and more than 10 years of experience in the oil and gas and energy sectors. He began his career with Baker Hughes and Nalco (Ecolab), where he specialized in chemical technologies and process optimization. He later joined Tengizchevroil (TCO) as a 3PG Utilities Process Engineer, supporting complex utility systems. For the past three years, he has worked as a Process Engineer on the SGP-400/500 Claus unit, supporting plant operations.

BIOGRAPHY

Madiyar Beisekov is an SPG/SGI Process Supervisor at Tengizchevroil with experience in sulfur recovery, amine treating, and utilities systems within the oil and gas industry. He has held roles across Utilities and Sulfur Recovery Units, supporting nitrogen and air systems, wastewater management, and off-plot facilities optimization. In his current role, he leads process engineering activities for sulfur recovery and tail gas treating operations, with a focus on Claus and TGTU performance, amine system reliability, emissions reduction initiatives, and operational excellence.
His experience includes participation in major plant shutdowns and start-ups, process troubleshooting, and continuous improvement projects, as well as active involvement in PHA/HAZOP studies to enhance process safety and reliability.  

BIOGRAPHY

Nuray Nurymzhanova is a Process Engineer with over six years of experience in oil and gas facilities engineering at Tengizchevroil (TCO). She previously worked as a unit process engineer supporting sulfur recovery and tail gas treating units (SRU/TGU), amine gas treating, gas dehydration, and sour gas injection facilities. She now works as a Sulfur&Amine technology process engineer, providing technical support for sulfur and amine processing technologies across the facilities. Her responsibilities include process troubleshooting, evaluation of unit performance, and analysis of complex operational issues, as well as support of reliability and operational improvement initiatives.

BIOGRAPHY

Francis Bernard is the Director of Operations at Alberta Sulphur Research Ltd. (ASRL). A chemist by training with a degree from Université de Sherbrooke, Francis oversees the company’s business and operational strategy. Since joining ASRL in 1999, he has developed expertise in the safe handling of high-pressure sour fluids and specialized measurements, such as water content in sour systems. His project history spans from corrosion and storage to transportation and emissions. While he specializes in elemental sulfur deposition and solvents, his recent work includes H2S scavengers and complex deposit analysis. Before ASRL, Francis developed acidizing and fracturing formulations for the oil and gas service industry.

BIOGRAPHY

Francis Bernard is the Director of Operations at Alberta Sulphur Research Ltd. (ASRL). A chemist by training with a degree from Université de Sherbrooke, Francis oversees the company’s business and operational strategy. Since joining ASRL in 1999, he has developed expertise in the safe handling of high-pressure sour fluids and specialized measurements, such as water content in sour systems. His project history spans from corrosion and storage to transportation and emissions. While he specializes in elemental sulfur deposition and solvents, his recent work includes H2S scavengers and complex deposit analysis. Before ASRL, Francis developed acidizing and fracturing formulations for the oil and gas service industry.

BIOGRAPHY

Jan-Willem Hennipman, PDEng, is one of the technology specialists of Worley Comprimo, with a broad knowledge in all aspects of sulphur recovery, sour water stripping and amine treating. Jan-Willem has more than 20 years of engineering experience in the oil and gas industries. Before that he worked 10 years as a process engineer for a pharmaceutical company. He holds a MS degree in Chemical Engineering and a Professional Doctorate in Engineering from the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands.

BIOGRAPHY

BIOGRAPHY

Yelshat Makarov is a process engineer in the oil and gas industry with experience in sulfur recovery, amine treating, utilities, and off-plot facilities.
He joined Tengizchevroil in 2021 and initially worked as a Process Engineer in Utilities and Off Plots, where he supported nitrogen and air production systems, monitored wastewater injection quality, optimized air dryer desiccants, and maintained process safety documentation, including P&IDs and regulations.
Since 2023, he has been working as a Process Engineer for the Sulfur Recovery Unit, where he supports sulfur recovery plant operations, Claus and tail gas treating unit (TGU) catalyst optimization, emissions-related initiatives, and continuous operational support for key stakeholders. His experience includes participation in major unit shutdowns and turnarounds, as well as active involvement in PHA/HAZOP sessions.

BIOGRAPHY

Jochen Geiger was in charge of Business Development at AMETEK Process Instruments. At the beginning of 2025, after almost 30 years as an employee, a new chapter in his professional career has started. As a part time pensioner, Jochen set up his own consulting agency. In this new rule he continues to support AMETEK Process Instruments and other manufacturers of Process Analytical Instruments.

BIOGRAPHY

Zhen Liu holds a PhD in Chemical Engineering and has extensive experience in both academic and industrial process innovation, design, and optimisation for separation and reaction systems. He brings more than 10 years of focused experience in natural gas treatment using adsorbent solutions across the Asia–Pacific market. At BASF Process Catalysts, he has supported solution set-up, process design, and customer implementation.

BIOGRAPHY

Jan Henk Van Dijk holds an M.Sc. degree in Chemical Engineering/Process Technology and has further expanded his expertise in engineering and project management through dedicated courses and training. After spending six years with two different engineering contractors in the chemical and oil and gas industries, working as a process engineer, lead process engineer, and project manager, Jan Henk joined Paques in 1998. At Paques, he served as the technical lead responsible for project execution for the THIOPAQ technology. In 2011, he joined Paqell as Technical Manager.