MEGA’s role in standardising Middle Eastern industrial gas sector

In a recent gasworld webinar, industrial gas professionals and stakeholders gathered to discuss the Middle East Gases Association (MEGA) and its ongoing efforts to harmonise industrial gas standards across the Gulf region.

Hosted in the lead-up to gasworld’s MENA Industrial Gases Conference in Abu Dhabi, the webinar highlighted the challenges and strategies MEGA employs to unify the region’s diverse operating standards and improve safety practices. Roger Sayah, General Secretary at MEGA, shared insights into the association’s objectives, challenges and collaborative approach.

“MEGA was established in 2010 with the primary goal of unifying and harmonising standards in the Middle East and Gulf area,” Sayah explained. The association has since played a key role in pushing regional authorities to adopt internationally recognised standards, advocating for both American and European regulations across Middle Eastern industrial gas sectors. 

Sayah further elaborated on MEGA’s mission, describing its ten-year journey of liaising with industry stakeholders to modernise and harmonise operating practices, a role he joined five years ago to help bring these changes into practice.

Cultural and operational diversity: A challenge for standardisation

The region’s cultural and operational diversity emerged as a recurring theme throughout the webinar, with Sayah discussing how the unique blend of local and international influences complicates day-to-day operations. 

“We’re addressing complex challenges due to the diverse operating models in the Middle East,” he noted. The workforce includes professionals from across the globe, leading to unique cross-cultural communication challenges that require careful management. With American, German, French and local cultures interacting within various countries, Sayah highlighted the importance of fostering an inclusive workplace.

In addition to cultural diversity, he cited infrastructural disparities as a major challenge. The legacy of aging equipment from Europe and the US, coupled with a need for modernisation, has created a regulatory gap. 

“In some sectors, you’ll find top technology, but in some other sectors where I would say some normal activity, you need to modernise,” he explained. This inconsistency, coupled with the complex logistical demands of transporting industrial gases across borders in the region, makes the goal of standardisation even more crucial for MEGA.

Approaching harmonisation: MEGA’s strategy for regulatory alignment

Addressing these multifaceted challenges, MEGA has developed a proactive strategy to approach local authorities and align with existing regulatory frameworks. Sayah explained how MEGA invests time and resources to understand each country’s regulatory “template” and creates accessible guidelines for industry stakeholders. 

“You can visit an authority, a civil defence, a ministry and you can propose multiple technical advices or documents, but it’s difficult to be understood or it’s difficult for the local team to implement whatever you have,” he said, underscoring MEGA’s efforts to communicate effectively with various government bodies, from civil defence to health ministries.

He detailed how MEGA collaborates with the American Industrial Gas Association (AIGA) and other international bodies to bring technical expertise and resources into the Gulf. This international support has strengthened MEGA’s position as a regional leader, helping it secure the cooperation of significant players like SABIC in Saudi Arabia and Qatar’s Ghazal, which have recently joined MEGA’s member base. 

According to Sayah, this network expansion has given MEGA increased leverage when working with authorities in implementing essential safety standards and regulatory frameworks.

Looking to the future: Expansion and standardisation across MENA

As the conversation shifted to MEGA’s future goals, Sayah expressed optimism for the continued expansion of harmonised standards across the broader MENA region.

“We hope to be able to copy what we have done, mainly in UAE and in Saudi, what we have done partially here and there to copy it here and there and in Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, soon Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, and Egypt,” he shared. MEGA’s mission to drive regional standardisation continues to gain momentum, aiming to encompass the majority of industrial gas manufacturers in the region by 2025.

With the upcoming MENA Industrial Gases Conference in Abu Dhabi, MEGA plans to use the event as a platform to communicate its message of safety and regulatory alignment further. 

“As we expect to have more technicians, more professionals in Abu Dhabi to get our message, it reaches more and more people that we connect with. I know that some authorities will come. I know that some some companies that we don’t see frequently will be there,” said Sayah.

“I know that some suppliers of high with new products will be there. We hope that this will will increase the safety, the efficiency, and have a long-term partnership with all of them. And I think gasworld is the right place to do [it] and the right place to meet these people and prepare a better year for 2025.”

To watch the full webinar on-demand, click here.