In its series of Guest Lectures and thought leadership programmes – PetroFed organised a lecture by Dr. Avinash Chandra , Former Director General, Directorate General of Hydrocarbons, Govt. of India on “Emerging trends in Oil & Gas Sector in India – India can more than triple its Natural Gas Production” on August 31, 2005 at New Delhi.

Dr Avinash Chandra has been one of the longest serving oil industry experts with over 43 years experience. He has several post graduate degrees from India and abroad including a Ph.D in petroleum geology from UK . He was the first Director General, Directorate General of Hydrocarbons, Govt. of India for more than 10 years and has been on the Board of various oil PSUs, including Navratna Companies, for over 10 years. After retirement he was Chief Consultant to OIDB & DGH till June, 2005.

The presentation covered the new Oil & Gas potential of India which Dr Avinash Chandra has inferred by conducting Geophysical Surveys in all the deep water and ultra- deep water areas of the country and in several frontier onland basins which were not explored earlier.

He demonstrated with supporting data that the country is poised to increase its crude oil production and would easily double its natural gas production within 5 years and more than triple it within the next 15 years. The East coast of India , as per his geological perception, would add 100 TCF of natural gas reserves. This would push India to the 10 th position in gas reserves in the world, ahead of even countries like Iraq , Kazakhstan , Indonesia , Norway , Libya . It is also inferred that additional, in-place reserve accretion of 6.5 billion tonnes is geologically feasible in the next 15 years.

In the ensuing 15 years oil & gas reserves equivalent to what the country has established in the last 50 years would get established. Thus, the country is moving towards a very healthy and dynamic growth in the oil & gas sector.

The lecture generated tremendous enthusiasm among participants which was evident during the question answer session.

The session was chaired by Dr. C.R. Prasad, former chairman, GAIL who felicitated the speaker and added value in his summing up remarks. Earlier Sh. S.L. Das, Director, BD&C, PetroFed welcomed the participants.

Click here to view presentation.