Since India imports over three fourths of its crude oil requirements and it is vulnerable to price volatility in the international market, PetroFed organised a one day workshop, Oil Price Risk Management-An Indian Perspective, for practicing managers on April 27, 2007 at New Delhi . The workshop covered the basics of derivative contracts, the markets where such contracts are traded, tools and techniques to use the derivative contracts in conjunction with physical contracts to mitigate risks and reduce uncertainty in business.

Welcoming the chief guest, Shri A. K. Arora, Director General, PetroFed highlighted the importance of international trading in crude oil and the need to upgrade skills of managers to hedge future uncertainties.

Shri S. V. Narasimhan, Director (Finance), IOCL elaborated in his inaugural address on international trading by recapitulating the changing market in a historical perspective. He dwelt on the key issues to be kept in mind by practicing managers for mitigating risks in a competitive environment.

In the pre-lunch session, Shri Manish Bansal, Vice President, Citigroup graphically, and in an interactive manner, explained not only international commodity and oil prices but the consequences of their volatility for the domestic market. The practical considerations in oil price risk management were dealt in detail by Shri T Srinivas, Chief Manager (IT), Risk Management, IOCL. He explained minute details of the subject by virtue of his vast hands-on experience.

The exchange traded futures markets in energy were dealt in detail, post-lunch by Shri Arvind Pal Singh, Assistant Vice President, NCDEX. He explained the roles of spot, forward and futures markets and the evolution of commodity derivatives in India . Shri C. K. Sengupta, Executive Director (IT), BPCL, thereafter explained over-the-counter markets and derivative tools including hedging and risk management framework. The pricing issues and risks in gas markets in India were detailed by Shri Ashish Kashive, Head Fuels Practice, CRISIL Limited.

Each session offered sufficient opportunity for participants to interact with experts and clarify their doubts.

The programme ended with a vote of thanks by Shri S. L. Das, Director (BD&C).

Click here to view presentations: (right click and 'Save Target As')