8 - Kuwait Oil Company

WK Water Handling LabImplements LIMSDMD, (WK) Captain Ahmad Al-Rasheed at the facilityThe KOC Water HandlingTeam (KOC-WH) recentlyimplemented a state of theart Laboratory InformationManagement System (LIMS)at its West Kuwait (WK) WaterHandling laboratory in orderto enhance operations.KOC WH (WK) also intends topursue the challenging task ofacquiring ISO 17025 Certification.However, the procurement ofthe LIMS system will facilitatethis undertaking because of thesystem’s ability to reduce thetime and effort required to meetthe extensive documentation andprocedural requirements for ISO17025 Certification.Before purchasing the newsystem, representativesfrom various LIMS vendorswere invited to providedemonstrations and discuss theirproducts with representativesfrom the laboratory and IT staffbefore assessing and studyingthe KOC Water Handling Team’srequirements. The KOC (WK)Lab Team also conducted a visitto several LIMS sites in orderto view their LIMS systems ina real world environment. Thisincluded a visit to KNPC’s MinaAbdullah Refinery, where theyreceived positive feedbackabout the system from theTeam Leader and Sr. Chemistthere, who upheld the positivequalities of SQL*LIMS and itsability to be configured to caterto the laboratory's workflow inaddition to the positive supportand services offered by Al EssaGroup, the local LIMS vendor.The KOC Water HandlingTeam maintained that positivefeedback from the refinery andthe comprehensive featuresand functionality of SQL*LIMSjustified its selection as thepreferred software to enhancetheir operations.Salman Al-Qabandi, Team Leaderof the KOC (WK) Water HandlingUnit, explained the reasoningbehind the need for LIMS:“Our current lab datarequirements are met using anOracle based system (Shahala)for data storage. Though thesystem meets our basic needs,we realized that ideally weshould move to an off the shelfLIMS system that is dedicated tolab applications that will help uscomply with GLP, ISO and other30 April-June 2012