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Industry Academia Interface on A-Z of Natural Gas & LNG

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30-02-May-2015  

Industry Academia Interface on A-Z of Natural Gas & LNG

The share of gas in India's energy mix is expected to go up steadily with the development of gas market, new LNG Terminals and a Gas Pipeline grid in the country. These developments envisage substantial requirement and deployment of skilled manpower in the gas sector. Considering the current shortage of skilled manpower in the sector, there is an urgent need for revisiting and expanding the course curriculum by the Technical Institutes including augmenting the knowledge and skills of the teaching faculty for building the required workforce.



In this backdrop, the Petroleum Federation of India organized the 4th Industry-Academia workshop on ‘A-Z of Natural Gas & LNG’ in association with the Lovraj Kumar Memorial Trust (LKMT) and Petronet LNG Limited (PLL) from April 30 to May 2, 2015 at Dahej, Gujarat.



The programme was conducted by experts from the industry and designed for the teaching faculty of Engineering Colleges, Universities and Industry members. Thirty-seven participants from seven educational Institutes, including 21 from the oil & gas industry attended the programme, which included a field visit to the LNG Terminal of Petronet LNG who hosted the event.



The last few years have seen a lot of changes in the Natural Gas & LNG Industry with many new terminals coming up globally and in India said Mr. Rajender Singh, Director (Technical), PLL while inaugurating the workshop. The supply side, he added, was impacted due to the decline in domestic production and costly imports resulting in idling of about 25000 MW power generation capacity in the country. Notwithstanding these setbacks, the country needs additional terminal capacity to meet the future demand. With expansion of Dahej Terminal to 15.00 MMTPA at the end of the IIIrd Phase of expansion (2016) and further addition of 2.5 MMTPA capacity during the IVth Phase (2018), the Dahej Terminal with a total capacity of 17.5 MMTPA will become one of the largest LNG Terminals globally, he added.



Welcoming participants, Mr. A. K. Chopra, VP (HR & PR), PLL gave a brief background about PLL’s phased development, future expansion programme and the challenges faced on account of non-availability of skilled manpower to suit its needs. It is to meet these challenges and bridge the skill gap that these workshops are organized to provide a hands-on exposure to the teaching faculty on Natural Gas & LNG.



Mr. Suresh Mathur, founding CEO & MD, Petronet LNG Ltd while speaking on ‘Challenges of LNG & Economics of its Use’ touched upon the impact of gas on replacement of liquid fuels and the resultant saving of foreign exchange for the country. The pipeline grid and last mile connectivity for the end user however is a must, duly supported by market determined pricing of gas in the country, he added. Mr. Mathur also chaired the Valedictory session. Mr. S. S. Ramgarhia, Director (Policy & Planning), PetroFed while proposing a vote of thanks elaborated on the background of Industry-Academia Interface programmes organized by PetroFed.



Click here to view programme and presentations