Looking ahead to MEOS GEO 2025

Ibrahim Moussa, managing director of KSA and Bahrain at SLB and co-chair of MEOS GEO 2025, speaks to Oil Review Middle East about his hopes for the upcoming MEOS GEO show in Bahrain, and business prospects for SLB in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain

MEOS GEO 2025, the Middle East's premier upstream oil, gas, and geosciences event returns to Exhibition World Bahrain from 16 – 18 September 2025. This long-established flagship platform unites energy leaders under the theme 'Energy for a prosperous future: Leading a sustainable tomorrow,' serving as a catalyst for advancement in the oil, gas and geosciences sectors by fostering collaboration, showcasing cutting-edge technologies, and promoting sustainable energy solutions in a rapidly transforming energy landscape. The event will bring together a diverse array of stakeholders, including national and international oil companies, technology pioneers, and service providers, to address the industry’s most pressing challenges and opportunities.

Moussa starts by expressing his excitement about the event and his role as conference co-chair alongside Alexander van Veldhoven, Chief Strategy Officer, Bapco Energies, under the leadership of Conference Chairman Sultan S. Al-Shamrani, Director Reservoir Management, Aramco and the executive committee.

“I believe this edition is poised to be truly remarkable. The theme, the level of participation, and the number of submitted abstracts are all outstanding. Platforms like MEOS GEO, with their rich heritage and history, play a vital role in uniting industry leaders and researchers. This collaborative effort is essential for tackling the critical challenges facing our industry today, particularly in the realms of energy and geoscience.”

Top of the list is the challenge of meeting the rising need for energy, while meeting sustainability and zero emissions targets. “The theme of 'Energy for a prosperous future: Leading a sustainable tomorrow' really resonates.”

Discussions around the energy transition and sustainable practices will therefore feature strongly.

“We want to advance the discussions around carbon capture and storage technologies, and integrating new energy sources. SLB and other companies will talk about some of the plays we have globally in geothermal and hydrogen and other new energies. There have been discussions on the regulatory framework that supports sustainability; that is going to be very important moving forward, as it will drive things in the right direction.

MEOS GEO 2025 takes place from 16-18 September in Bahrain. 

“We need to balance economic viability and the environmental stewardship needed to reach sustainability objectives.”

One aspect that Moussa is particularly passionate about is engaging the youth. “These platforms show the youth and young professionals that the energy field is still a very viable, thriving, and innovative industry that continues to renew itself. This is an important element that we will explore and fully support. We aim to not only engage the youth but also drive community engagement and public support for the industry.”

Turning specifically to SLB’s focus at the show, Moussa says the company will showcase several solutions aimed at driving value and reducing costs, with a particular emphasis on digital transformation, production optimisation, and intervention technologies.

In this context he mentions SLB’s “game-changing” acquisition of Champion X, completed recently, which will see the integration of ChampionX production chemicals and its complementary artificial lift, digital, and emissions technologies, strengthening SLB’s position as a leader in the production and recovery space.

“It's a very complimentary portfolio, particularly in the space of production chemicals and artificial lift,” explains Moussa. “We have a lot to share with our esteemed clients in the Kingdoms of Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. For example, we will highlight aspects such as digital surveillance expansion, chemical injection, integrated facilities, and pipeline optimisation. In summary, these innovations will help our clients increase production efficiency, lower the cost of ownership, and continue their journey towards sustainability.”

Commenting on business prospects for SLB, he says, “We are very proud that we have more than 85 years’ history in the kingdoms of Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. We've been on a long journey, moving to manufacturing, localisation, and local talent development, to the point where most of our workforce is recruited locally. In the last two years, we managed to double the number of our female engineers and females in support functions in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. So there is lots going on here. We stay very close to our clients to support their needs. We have completed high impact local projects supporting the region’s growth. There are opportunities in the key growth themes such as unconventional gas development, integrated work and digital workflows that bring a lot of efficiency gains, as well as the transition technologies and decarbonisation projects, which I touched on before. From the beginning we have had a very strong service delivery culture, and with the introduction of sustainable solutions we can complete that journey of efficiency and sustainability, bringing down the cost of total cost of ownership by passing on those efficiency gains.”

SLB’s technologies and solutions continue to evolve, he says. “We continue to focus on engineering and manufacturing equipment locally, and developing the local talent that will provide the service. Most importantly, we remain focused on responding to our clients’ needs and providing those solutions that they require from us. We remain fully committed to the culture of HSE and service quality.”

Concluding, Moussa reiterates, “To revisit some of those themes, digital innovation, production performance and enhancement, bringing down the cost of ownership, bringing about efficiency gains, sustainability, technical alignment, are the themes we will be focused on in this very exciting edition, along with exciting the youth. This is an industry that has a lot to offer, and has a bright future.”

MEOS GEO 2025 takes place from 16-18 September in Bahrain.