Dear Delegates, Industry Colleagues and Friends,

I am very pleased to announce Saras will co-host the IDW 2019 - International Downstream Week in Sardinia and we would like to thank the organizers, Euro Petroleum Consultants (EPC Ltd.), for their interest in the Italian downstream industry.

Over the years, we have focused on creating one of the biggest and most complex refineries in the Mediterranean region that is the result of continuous investments and improvement projects realized over more than 50 years of activity in the sector. We are proud to have the opportunity to exchange our achievements and experience with all esteemed international guests attending IDW 2019.

SARAS is a company producing medium and light distillates with low environmental impact in integration with petrochemical and electricity production through one of the largest liquid fuel gasification plants in the world. As we represent about 20% of total Italian refining capacity, our participation in the IDW 2019, incorporating the IDTC – International Downstream Technology and Strategy Conference and BBTC – International Bottom of the Barrel Technology Conference, is highly topical for us.

We would like to encourage all industry representatives to participate in this leading industry event with your recent case studies, innovations and key findings, to share your thoughts on pressing issues and increased expectations towards the European downstream industry that affect us all and including but not limited to: competition with non-European refiners, industry digitalization and digital transformation, constantly changing supply/demand dynamics, the challenges and opportunities arising from the upcoming MARPOL annex VI regulation, among many others.

This is a challenging time for us all but also one that brings us together and one that makes us strive for constant improvement of our skills and initiatives to achieve better results.

As part of our #DigitalSaras program, we believe the best investment we can make is in our people and their knowledge. We are therefore planning and implementing programs on leveraging new technologies, such as cloud, big data and data analysis, industrial internet, cyber security and augmented reality to help position us as one of the best sector operators. One of these program is focused on predictive maintenance with clear benefits not only for the company’s cost-savings and improved maintenance and turnaround processes, but also for improving the professional lives of our technicians and engineers.

We believe that co-hosting this conference will create an excellent communication platform to discuss new and updated technologies with our colleagues from all over the world, will allow for best practice sharing and discussions for technical solutions and will help identify and brainstorm on how to prepare ourselves to be resilient to the upcoming changes our industry faces.

We are looking forward to seeing all of you on 27-29 May 2019 in Sardinia.