Among the large number of visitors on Day 3 at the Saudi Arabia International Oil and Gas Exhibition were budding engineers from King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals and the University of Dammam.
The young Saudi petroleum graduates were especially invited to the event by the exhibition organizers to fuel their interest in the various aspects of the oil and gas industry.
"They are the future of Saudi Arabia and we want them to know more about the latest technology that is being used in the industry," said International Exhibition Services Managing Director Piero A. Zipoli. "We want them to network with executives who may stand them in good stead in their later lives, especially when they enter the job market."
Launched in 2009, the initiative, rightly called as the "SAOGE Student Program," fully supports the Kingdom's localization initiative. "It provides selected students form the two universities with the opportunity to meet with key industry representatives from both the region as well as international oil and gas companies," said Zipoli.
Rami M. Alloush, chapter secretary at the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE), led the KFUPM group. He agreed with Zipoli. "Keeping the young graduates in touch with the market around them and the latest technologies in the industry are among the core goals of SPE," he said. "And this visit is one of the direct ways to achieve those goals."
The graduates took keen interest in the technology that was on offer at various stands put up by some of the most important and prestigious oil and gas companies from Saudi Arabia and around the world. They asked all the relevant questions and seemed very interested in their answers.
At the South Rub Al-Khali Co. Ltd. (SRAK) stand, the graduates posed a number of questions relating to career options and growth areas in the oil and gas industry.
Abdullah Saleh Al-Elyani, the head of public relations at SRAK, said the graduates were keen on getting all the information and details about the incentives that local companies offered.
"They wanted to know about the training programs that we at SRAK offer, our salary structure, growth prospects and scholarship programs," said Al-Elyani. "At SRAK, we were very keen to receive them and answer their questions because we have a special focus on Saudization and we have initiated a young graduate progression program."
SRAK, which is a joint venture between Saudi Aramco and Shell, has achieved 62 percent Saudization. "We expect this number to grow in the coming years," said Al-Elyani.
Dr. Abdulrahman Salih Hariri, dean of the College of Engineering at the University of Dammam, described the visit as a golden opportunity for his students.
"Meeting with key companies and gaining more knowledge of the oil and gas sector ... all these were extremely beneficial to our young men," he said. "We thank SAOGE for providing this opportunity to our graduates."
The three-day exhibition, which ended yesterday, attracted nearly 8,000 visitors. It was described as successful by a number of participants.
Parvaiz Ahmad, projects manager, Kanoo Commercial Group, said the high number of companies that took part in SAOGE 2012 impressed him. "We have been here before and I have to say it was bigger and better this time," he told Arab News.
Lee Eccles, regional manager, Survival Systems International, Dubai, was pleasantly surprised by the size of the exhibition. "I never thought it would be this big, and so frankly, yes, I am impressed by the number of companies that took part in this exhibition," he said.
SAOGE student program attracts young graduates
SAOGE student program attracts young graduates
Saudi-built AI takes on financial crime
- Mozn’s FOCAL reflects the Kingdom’s growing fintech ambitions
RIYADH: As financial institutions face increasingly complex threats from fraud and money laundering, technology companies are racing to build systems that can keep pace with evolving risks.
One such effort is FOCAL, an AI-powered compliance and fraud prevention platform developed by Riyadh-based enterprise artificial intelligence company Mozn.
Founded in 2017, Mozn was established with a focus on building AI technology tailored to regional market needs and regulatory environments. Over time, the company has expanded its reach beyond Saudi Arabia, developing advanced AI solutions used by financial institutions in multiple markets. It has also gained international recognition, including being listed among the World’s Top 250 Fintech Companies for the second consecutive year.
In January 2026, Mozn’s flagship product, FOCAL, was named a Category Leader in Chartis Research’s RiskTech Quadrant 2025 for both AML Transaction Monitoring and KYC (Know Your Customer) Data and Solutions, placing it among 10 companies globally to receive this designation.
Malik Alyousef, co-founder of Mozn and chief technology officer of FOCAL, told Arab News that the platform initially focused on core anti-money laundering functions when development began in 2018. These included customer screening, watchlists, and transaction monitoring to support counter-terrorism financing efforts and the detection of suspicious activity.
As financial crime tactics evolved, the platform expanded into fraud prevention. According to Alyousef, this shift introduced a more proactive model, beginning with device risk analysis and later incorporating tools such as device fingerprinting, behavioral biometrics, and transaction fraud detection.
More recently, FOCAL has moved toward platform convergence through its Financial Crime Intelligence layer, a vendor-neutral framework designed to bring together multiple systems into a single interface for investigation and reporting. The approach allows institutions to gain a consolidated view without replacing their existing technology infrastructure.
“Our architecture eliminates blind spots in financial crime detection. It gives institutions a complete view of the user journey, combining transactional and non-transactional behavioral data,” Alyousef said.
DID YOU KNOW?
• Some electronic money institutions using the platform have reported fraud reductions of up to 90 percent.
• The platform combines anti-money laundering and fraud prevention into a single financial crime intelligence system.
• FOCAL integrates with existing banking systems without requiring institutions to replace their technology stack.
Beyond its underlying architecture, Alyousef pointed to several areas where FOCAL aims to differentiate itself in a competitive market. One is its emphasis on proactive fraud prevention, which assesses risk throughout the customer lifecycle — from onboarding and login behavior to ongoing account activity — with the goal of stopping fraud before losses occur.
He described the platform as an “expert-led model,” highlighting the availability of on-the-ground support for system design, tuning, assessments, and continuous optimization throughout its use.
“FOCAL is designed to be extended,” Alyousef added, noting its adaptability and the ability for clients to customize schemas, rules, and data fields to match their business models and risk tolerance. This flexibility, he said, allows institutions to respond more quickly to emerging fraud patterns.
Alyousef also emphasized the importance of local context in the platform’s development.
“The platform incorporates regional regulatory requirements and language considerations. Global tools often struggle with local context, naming conventions and compliance nuances — we are designed specifically with these realities in mind,” he said.
FOCAL is currently used by a range of organizations, including traditional banks, digital banks, fintech firms, electronic money institutions, payment companies, and other financial service providers. Alyousef said results from live deployments have been significant, with some large EMI clients reporting fraud reductions of up to 90 percent.
“Clients benefit not only from reduced fraud losses but also from an improved customer experience, as the system minimizes unnecessary friction and false rejections,” he said. “Beyond financial services, we also work with organizations in e-commerce and telecommunications.”
Looking ahead, Alyousef said the company sees agentic AI as a key direction for the future of financial crime prevention, both in the region and globally. Mozn, he added, is investing heavily in this area to enhance investigative workflows and operational efficiency, building on the capabilities of its Financial Crime Intelligence layer.
“We are pioneers in introducing agentic AI for financial crime investigation and rule-building. Our roadmap increasingly emphasizes automation, advanced machine learning and AI-assisted workflows to improve investigator productivity and reduce false positives.”
As AI tools become more widely available, Alyousef warned that the risk of misuse by criminals is also increasing, raising the bar for defensive technologies.
“Our goal is to stay ahead of that curve and to contribute meaningfully to positioning Saudi Arabia and the region as globally competitive leaders in AI,” he said.
