GOA: MARKETING ONGCS R&D
It is a shame, therefore, that none of the technical papers by Indian R&D institutes addressed the two areas mentioned by Bora and where R&D is most needed in India: enhanced oil recovery and exploitation and development of marginal fields.
Equally surprising was the failure by many of the foreign delegates to point out the weaknesses of Indias R&D sector, perhaps for fear of offending their generous hosts. Instead, delegates listened to an impressive marketing pitch by Kuldeep Chandra, Executive Director of the Keshava Deva Malaviya Institute of Petroleum Exploration (KDIMPE) and TSR Prasada Rao, Director of the Indian Institute of Petroleum (IIP).
Chandra in particular reeled off an impressive list of statistics: ONGC has 5.37bn tonnes of established in place reserves; 225 production installations onshore; 76 drilling rigs and 44 workover rigs; 32 seismic crews and 36 logging units; 131 well platforms offshore; 10 drillships; and finally, the staggering revelation that out of a total workforce of 48,000, ONGC employs 1,741 people in its R&D centres across India; of this, 41% (about 800) are employed at the KDIMPE. He also revealed that KDIMPE processes 75% of ONGCs seismic and has interpreted 44 of ONGCs 3D prospects.
Prasada Rao, meanwhile, proudly announced that the IIP had technology joint ventures with no less than 12 foreign organisations: IFP (France); AMOCO; Stone & Webster; ABB Lumus; Enron; Geopic; Exxon; Mitsubishi; Unitel (USA); Suzuki (Japan); UOP (USA); Mobil; GTC (USA); and Adibis (Singapore).
