Reflecting on ONGC’s steadfast commitment to continue aggressive hydrocarbon exploration in national interest, Chairman & CEO Arun Kumar Singh expressed confidence that its niche expertise in deepwater drilling operations would prove to be a critical enabler for future exploration activities, mostly centred in unexplored offshore areas. Mr. Singh was addressing the ‘Policy perspective: Navigating Energy Trilemma’ strategic summit on the Day 1 of ‘UrjaVarta’ Conclave in New Delhi on 11 July 2024.

Chairman & CEO, ONGC, Arun Kumar Singh addressing during Day 1 of Urja Varta 2024

Chairman also spoke about the increased asset-monetization intensity worldwide owing to the looming threat of faster energy transition. He mentioned that ONGC’s plan to fast track monetization of its untapped fields faced challenges owing to bottlenecks in EPC capacities and a worldwide surge in demand. Mr. Singh signed off saying that a responsible NOC like ONGC must balance both national and commercial interests while devising its exploration and asset development strategy.

The two-day upstream conclave, UrjaVarta 2024, hosted by the Directorate General of Hydrocarbon (DGH) at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi, is designed to serve as a strategic forum for industry operators, policymakers, service providers, experts, think tanks, and academia to exchange knowledge, network, and collaborate towards realizing the full potential of India's upstream hydrocarbon resources in a sustainable manner.

Mr. Arun Kumar Singh discussing the inticacies of Energy Trilema with other panellists at Bharat Mandapam

The strategic summit saw a host of other panellists too, including Director General-DGH Dr. Pallavi Jain Govil, Joint Secretary-Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change of India (MoEFCC) Dr. Sujit Kumar Bajpayee, Chairman & MD OIL Dr. Ranjith Rath, Senior Vice President BP Kartikeya Dube and Deputy CEO Vedanta Dr. Steeve Moore, discussing ways to balance energy needs and sustainability targets. The panellists also brainstormed on policy changes required to enable longer, better and more sustainable production from available resources. Partner & Global Head ENRC, KPMG International, Anish De moderated the session.

Director (Production) Pankaj Kumar sharing the challenges posed by mature oil & gas fields during 'Production Enhancement: Challenges & Opportunities' session

Later, in the session titled ‘Production Enhancement: Challenges & Opportunities', Director (Production) Pankaj Kumar highlighted that changes in fluid characteristics, cost of productivity and increase in overheads posed critical challenges in mature fields. He asserted that production enhancement was a continuous process and deployment of latest technology to augment production need not wait for fields to mature. He further added that collaboration for technology induction was the key to lower costs and mitigate reservoir age-related challenges.

Director (Production) exhorting that collaborations would be the key to improve cost efficiency and boost production

Along with Mr. Kumar, Partner KPMG India Vivek Rahi (Moderator), Director (Operations) OIL Pankaj Goswami, Director-Selan S Roy Chaudhary, Director (Sales & Marketing)-Southeast Asia SLB Deepak Agarwal and Professor at University of Calgary Dr. Hemanta Sharma deliberated on the need for fostering industry-academia collaborations, using AI in mature fields, and attracting investments for boosting domestic oil and gas production to satiate India’s growing energy appetite and reduce its reliance on imports.

Director (Exploration) Sushma Rawat talking about the need to increase the ambit of exploration by probing unexplored deeper plays

Earlier during the day’s first strategic-summit session ‘Navigating New Frontiers: Unveiling India’s Exploration Potential’, Director (Exploration) Sushma Rawat too provided valuable insights into ONGC’s plans of not only increasing the aerial extent of acreages but also aggressively probing unexplored deeper plays. She also emphasized on recategorization of Basins and the imminent need for harnessing cutting-edge technology in data acquisition and drilling to tap into the immense potential in the deeper plays.

Director (Exploration) proposing collaboration through new ventures to use the common resource pool

Additional Secretary- MoPNG Praveen Mal Khanooja, Executive Director OIL Saloma Yomdo, Director (Exploration) Vedanta Biswanath Ghosh, Executive Director SEG Jim White and Domain Expert at University of Houston David Hume were also part of the panel that brainstormed on how favourable policies and strategic collaborations related to data and knowledge would be force multipliers for unlocking the vast potential of India’s untapped hydrocarbon resources.

The first edition of Urja Varta was inaugurated by Union Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri earlier in the day. Expressing confidence that Urja Varta 2024 would serve as a catalyst for collaboration and innovation in the energy sector, the minister invited stakeholders from industry, academia, and government to leverage the platform to contribute towards India's energy security goals.