The Contracts and Materials Department of Oryx GTL held its first Annual Contractors/Suppliers Forum here in Doha on September 23. This session was chaired by Oryx GTL’s chief commercial officer, Mohamed Sharif Ibrahim al-Mushiri who was supported by Saeed al-Kaabi, contracts manager and Ibrahim al-Ajlan, materials manager. The forum was also attended by several managers and staff of Oryx GTL’s Commercial Group as well as contractors and suppliers. ‘Connect, Exchange, Co-operate’ was the theme of the forum, which was aimed at facilitating interaction between contractors and suppliers towards improvement in compliance, practices and business relationship. In keeping with Oryx GTL’s Values and Safety culture, the head of safety, Byron Ardoin, gave the first presentation titled ‘HSE Safety moment’. Other presenters during this event were Gary Frank von Berg, marketing manager and Philip Thorpe-Willett, Head of Contracts. Von Berg’s presentation focused on products, competitors and customers while Thorpe-Willett gave a brief overview of the e-Commerce Vision, addressing best practices in using Oryx GTL’s website to obtain contract related information. Thereafter, an open session was held to give both parties the opportunity to freely express their views, ask questions, discuss issues and areas of improvement as well as share their expectations on various business issues and practices such as clarity of specifications, bid submission and evaluation, amongst others. The CCO reiterated the importance of ensuring submission of bids on time, which is in line with Oryx GTL’s tendering policies and procedures. In his response to questions on Oryx GTL’s evaluation process, the CCO stated that every proposed product or service must meet the criteria as per technical specification before it can be considered for commercial evaluation.