An International Symposium on ‘Safety Instrumentation in Oil & Gas Industry’ was organised jointly with the Oil Industry Safety Directorate on June 23-24, 2008 at New Delhi.

Inaugurating the symposium, Shri M.S. Srinivasan, Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas traced the increasing complexities of the oil and gas industry in the past few decades and the key role which digital instrumentation plays in safety of plant and people. Shri M.A. Tankiwala, Director (Refineries), HPCL highlighted how a simple distillation process has acquired tremendous complexities. Shri Vimal Kapoor, MD, Honeywell, which co-sponsored the symposium, provided detailed inputs on recent advances in digital instrumentation. Mr. Gary P. Godwin, MD, UOP India brought to fore the recent developments in technology for heightened safety.

The Joint Chief Controller of Explosives, Shri R.C. Kaul stressed on keeping abreast with technology and innovation to strengthen safety. Participants were earlier welcomed by the Executive Director, OISD, Shri J.B. Verma while the vote of thanks was proposed by Shri A.K. Arora, Director General, PetroFed.

The three technical sessions on day one and four on the second day were addressed by eminent experts from oil and gas, process and risk management areas. A team of panelists from the oil and gas and Honeywell answered queries of participants before conclusion of the programme.