Industry Academia

15-19 January 2007

As you are aware, Petrotech Society had been making efforts for the last few years to bring Academia and the Industry closer, with a view to creating synergy in the hydrocarbon Sector with better understanding, cooperation and to draw strength from each other. Pursuant to the said objective, Petrotech Society has organized seven workshops/seminars on ‘Academia -Industry Interface’ to achieve this objective. The last seminar held on 17th-18th January 2007 at ITPO, Pragati Maidan, New Delhi to coincide with the Petrotech-2007. It was attended by 120 students and 21 professors drawn from 22 Technical Institutes/Universities.

The course contents of the seminar was designed by the Petrotech Society in consultation with Dr A K Bhatnagar, Head R&D, RIL and were finalized with the help of following Committee Members:

1. Dr. A. K. Bhatnagar, Head R&T, RIL
2. Mr Anil Swani, Vice President (I A), Schlumberger Asia Services Ltd.
3. Mr R Sarin, CRM, IOCL R&D, Indian Oil Corporation Ltd.
4. Dr A A Gupta, DGM, IOCL R&D,Indian Oil Corporation Ltd.
5. Dr E Sayanna, Indian Oil Corporation Ltd,
6. Dr Jauhari Lal, Secretary General & CEO, Petrotech Society
7. Mr G Sarpal, Secretary, Petrotech Society
8. Mrs Suman Gupta, Manager, Petrotech Society

Several meetings, correspondences, telephone calls etc. were made with the best available experts within the petroleum industry for identifying experts to deliver talks/lectures on the subjects of their expertise in the designed course. While most of them responded positively, a few could not contribute to the programme due to exigency of work. Some of them could not come personally to deliver their talks. But it was very nice of them that they deputed substitutes to give their talks during the course under the programme.

Inauguration

Mr Naresh Kumar, Managing Director Jindal Drilling and Industries Ltd and President, Petrotech Society welcomed the participants of the seminar and invited guests at the Inauguration of the seminar on 17th January 2007. The seminar was inaugurated by Mr M R Hingnikar, C&MD, GAIL. While introducing the course contents to the participants the course director Dr A K Bhatnagar, stressed the importance of the ‘Energy & Ecology’, theme of the seminar. Mr Sanjaya Sood, Vice President, Real Time Solutions, Schlumberger delivered the Keynote Address. Dr Jauhari Lal, Secretary General and CEO, Petrotech Society proposed the vote of thanks and recalled that Petrotech Society had been endeavoring to bring the experts from the Academia and Petroleum Industry together to promote greater interaction between the two sector, so that the intellectuals of the academic circles of the country may also contribute towards the efforts of the experts in petroleum industry in their respective fields for realizing better results with improved economy. He said that the course was another step in this direction and one of the series of such interaction meets. He appealed to the intellectuals of the academia to pass on the information on up-to-date technological trends in the petroleum industry to their students in an appropriate manner so that when they come out of their peers from institutions of advanced countries, and thus would be able to serve the industry in any part of the world and acquire leadership in their profession.

Twenty Five faculty drawn from industry and academia made their presentations on the following themes during this seminar.

• Session-I on the theme of “Indian Energy Scenario” Chaired by Mr C Ramulu, Director (F), HPCL. Presentation was made by Dr D M Kale (R&D), ONGC
• Session-II on the theme of “Environment Issues in Hydrocarbon Industry” chaired by Mr Mukesh Rohatgi, Chairman, EIL. Presentation was made by Mr A B Chakraborty, GM, Alternate Energy, ONGC
• Session-III on the theme of “Introduction to Upstream Oil Sector and Challenges” chaired by Mr S K Patra, Director (R&D), OIL. Presentations were made by Mr Y B SInha, former Director (E), ONGC and Mr Ian Galbreath, India Marketing Manager, Schlumberger
• Session-IV on the theme of “Introduction to downstream Oil Sector and Challenges” chaired by Mr C K Sengupta, Executive Director (IT), BPCL. Presentations were made by Mr S Sarkar from IOCL and Mr Barun Barpujari, DGM (CP), IOCL
• Session-V on the theme of “International Initiatives to Secure Hydrocarbon Reserves for India” chaired by Mr R S Butola, Managing Director, OVL and Mr J K Talukdar, Director (HR), OIL. Presentations were made by representatives from OVL & OIL and Mr Anil Swani, Vice President (IA), Schlumberger.
• Session VI on the theme of “Greening the Environment-Alternate Fuels” Chaired by Dr S J Chopra, Chancellor, UPES. Presentations were made by Dr R K Malhotra, GM, IOCL, R&D and Dr R Sarin, CRM, IOCL R&D.
• Session VII on the theme of “Overview of Natural Gas Chains in India” chaired by Mr M R Hingnikar, C&MD GAIL and Mr Jokhan Ram, ED-Head, KDMIPE. Presentations were made by Mr B S Negi, former Director, GAIL
• Session VIII on the theme of “IT Solutions in Hydrocarbon Industry” chaired by Mr T S Darbari, Director (Corporate Strategy), Hewlett Packard. Presentations were made by Dr Albrecht (Ali) Ferling, GM, Global Energy Industries and Mr Vimal Shah, Director Halliburton Technology Centre, Pune

A Quiz for students was also organized on 18th January 2007 by Mrs J Peters, DGM (P&A)-IR and assisted by Ms Litty Jose Kutty, SE (E&T) & Ms Hemeshwary Sharma, SE (E&T). Dr A K Balyan, Director (HR), ONGC had inaugurated the quiz by asking questions to the participants. Six teams were constituted, each team consisted of 4 students from different institutes/university. Prizes were given to First, Second and Third winning teams. Some consolation prizes were also distributed to the audience for their correctly answering the questions put to them directly.

During the Valedictory Session a panel discussion was organized on the theme of “Career Opportunities in Oil Sector” under the chairmanship of Mr R S Sharma, Chairman & Managing Director, ONGC. Panel was made of Director HR of IOCL, HPCL, BPCL, OIL and Mr Anil Swani, Vice President (IA) and Mr Marcio D’Silva from Schlumberger Asia Pvt Ltd.

Students were also given an opportunity to visit PETROTECH-2007 Exhibition organized by ONGC at New Delhi from 15th -19th January 2007 in collaboration with Spearhead Exhibitions Ltd as ‘Exhibition Partner’. It was inaugurated by Mr Murli Deora, Hon’ble Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas, Govt of India on 15th January 2007 and presence of other dignitaries from Oil Industry made this event a grand success. It was sponsored by Halliburton and CNBC TV18 was the Media Partner. Total 132 companies from India and abroad had participated in the Exhibition. All the participants were also invited for Gala Dinner and cultural evening during the above conference.

Petrotech Society had reimbursed a lump sum amount towards the expenses borne by students for their travel, boarding and lodging.

PARTICIPANT’S FEEDBACK

Feedback forms were distributed to the delegate to obtain their valuable feed back on the seminar. The impression of participants are as given below.

1. What were the significant strengths of the seminar. The views indicated by the participants were:
   1. Coverage of Emerging areas in Hydrocarbon Sector
   2. Student’s Interaction with Industry Speakers
   3. Quiz on Hydrocarbon
2. Suggestions received for improving the quality and content of such seminar in future were:
   1. Students can be given opportunities to present papers
   2. Competition of “Best Paper” for students should be conducted
   3. Session timings should be increased

Acknowledgement

The initiative & drive in oragnising the Industry Academia Interface by Petrotech Society and the keen interest shown by the Committee constituted for the seminar are thankfully acknowledged. Grateful thanks are due to Schlumberger Asia Services Ltd, the main sponsor of the Seminar alongwith ONGC & Hewlett Packard being the Co-sponsors, without whose support the Industry-Academia seminar would not have been a success.