Upstream Ahead Summit charts out oil, gas industry vision 2050

New Delhi [India], February 17 : Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), Oil India Limited (OIL), Cairn Oil and Gas (Vedanta Ltd), and Hindustan Oil Exploration Company Limited (HOEC) hosted the first edition of the virtual summit 'Upstream Ahead- Oil and Gas Exploration and Production - Towards Vision 2050' on February 11 and February 12.
The summit hosted under the aegis of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MoPNG) and Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) provided a platform for all key stakeholders to come together and drive powerful solution-based dialogues for a smooth way forward.
As per the ONGC's release, the virtual summit hosted intellectual panels of more than 70 speakers from the Oil and Gas industry across the globe, along with experts from financial and academic institutions, regulatory authorities and Central ministries, service providers, consulting firms, and institutions like NITI Aayog, World Energy Congress, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MERE), Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) among others, with registered participants reaching more than 7,000.
Speaking at the event, Tarun Kapoor, Secretary, MoPNG said that in the backdrop of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's clarion call for Aatmanirbhar Bharat, seeking progress in the upstream sector is crucial to reducing our nation's import dependence.
"With large resources unexplored, ongoing onshore and offshore surveys, and data availability for better analysis, the sector is provided with immense possibilities and requires all stakeholders to get on board as a team in this journey towards Vision 2050," he said.
According to SCL Das, Director General, DGH, the discourses of the summit aid to deliver in short packages as part of a continuum, embedded in the commonly shared belief about the future.
"The event is a curtain-raiser, engaging all the stakeholders and bringing a 'Thinking Element' into the whole exercise," Das said.
Numerous positions and points of view were outlined over the course of two days, covering the whole spectrum of the Oil and Gas Exploration and Production sector.
"With progressive reforms such as OALP and NDR intensifying the exploration efforts, ONGC had taken a strategic decision to enhance its focus on unexplored areas," said Shashi Shanker, Chairman and MD, ONGC.
To reach the target of meeting 50 per cent of demand indigenously by 2050, Shanker called for bold steps to venture into unknown territories to intensify exploration, to improve overall recovery factor attempting to match benchmarked analogous fields across the world and eventually realise the untapped potential of unconventional resources.
The need for targeted approach employing play-based explorations supported by seismic and non-seismic technologies and digitalization initiatives was voiced by RK Srivastava, Director (Exploration), ONGC and unequivocally echoed by the panellists of the session he chaired.
"There is an emerging need for the exploration and production sector to align with the national objective of Energy Security. In light of this, the significance of mature fields is increasing over time. Techniques like EOR and ASP are paving the way for improving recovery and optimizing mature fields," said Anurag Sharma, Director (Onshore), ONGC.
"Fostering the growth of domestic OFES industry, to make India self-reliant in exploration and production sector equipment, formulating procurement plans are vital to unveil the opportunities lying ahead for indigenous manufacturers and MSEs, harmonizing with the government policies under Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan," said Om Prakash Singh, Director (Technical and Field Services), ONGC.
Amar Nath, Joint Secretary (Exploration), MoPNG, called the summit complimentary for the industry and the government to innovate and move towards a long-term vision of self-reliant India.