Sultan Albigishi

Sultan Albigishi is the Chief Executive Officer of ADNOC Refining, a role he assumed in June 2023. With more than 30 years of downstream experience, he has extensive expertize across refinery operations management, project delivery, planning, and strategy, and has spent almost his entire career with ADNOC Refining. Albigishi began his career as a Process Engineer and progressed through a wide range of technical and leadership roles across operations, planning, technical services, and corporate functions. Prior to his appointment as CEO, he served as Senior Vice President for Projects and Technical at ADNOC Refining. Earlier, he was Senior Vice President for Asset Development at OMV, where he oversaw refining operations across Austria, Germany, and Romania. He also served as a Board Member at ADNOC’s Technical Academy. Albigishi holds a degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Tulsa.

Session Overview

Tuesday, 3 November

14:05

Downstream, Chemicals & Industrial Value Chains Plenary Hall B 14:05 - 14:35

Global refining: navigating supply disruption and structural market pressure

Global refining capacity is shifting towards large-scale integrated complexes in the Middle East and Asia, while older facilities in Europe and mature markets close or convert. Supply disruptions in 2026 have exposed dependence on concentrated supply routes, limited spare capacity and crude-slate inflexibility, compressing margins and forcing operational adjustments across refining systems. Managing these conditions requires refiners to make difficult trade-offs between utilisation, feedstock access and product slate strategy in real time. Regional disparities in refining economics are widening, and operators are drawing on inventories and re-optimising configurations to protect margins and maintain stability as disruption moves from episodic to structural. Refiners that build operational flexibility and commercial adaptability into their systems will sustain performance where others face margin deterioration and output constraints.

Attendee Insights:
Understand how refining leaders are managing critical trade-offs to protect margins and sustain market position through prolonged supply disruption.