KUST holds panel discussion on “Recent gas leak accidents in Slemani and Duhok; Causes and Remediation”

On November 24, 2022, the department of Petroleum Engineering organized a panel discussion on the recent tragic gas leak accidents in Slemani and Duhok. The event started with observing a moment of silence for the victims of both incidents. Later, a series of seminars were presented by five speakers both within academia and LPG related industry representatives. In the beginning of the seminar, Dr. Hiwa Sdiq, the head of the Petroleum Engineering Department, presented a seminar on the causes of such incidents and their solutions. After that, Mr. Kawa Salim, an electrical engineer from Germany participated in the event with an online seminar explaining the technicality surrounding the way LPG systems function. Later, Mr. Sardasht, a faculty member of the Civil Engineering Department at KUST, presented a seminar explaining factors that caused these incidents from the perspective of civil engineering. Following his lecture, Mr. Karwan Khafaf, a representative of the LPG system installation industry gave a talk in which he explained on the drawbacks of the implementation of these systems and stressed the importance of having protective measures and standards when installing LPG systems. Finally, a lecture on the dynamics of time in the explosion of such systems was presented by Dr. Hamid Zade, a faculty member at the department of Petroleum Engineering. At the end of the panel, the members of the audience directed their questions and observations to the presenters and discussed possible solutions and recommendations to problems in this industry to be given to concerned parties in the government.