The FIPI Oil and Gas Awards are the most prestigious awards of the Indian oil and gas industry that recognise exceptional performance by companies/individuals for contribution made by them towards the growth of Indian oil and gas industry. While FIPI awards are a regular feature, in 2019, FIPI organised an accompanying day-long conference with lectures by industry experts and panel discussion on various pressing industry issues. At the Awards ceremony held in the evening, the Hon’ble Minister handed out the awards across various categories and delivered the key note address.

The inaugural session at the conference was attended by Mr M A Pathan, Former Chairman, IndianOil ; Dr R K Malhotra, Director General, FIPI; Mr T K Sengupta, Director (E&P), FIPI; Mr N K Bansal, Director (Oil Refining and Marketing), FIPI and Mr Rajiv Bahl, Director (Finance, Taxation and Legal), FIPI. Speaking at the occasion, Dr Malhotra highlighted that the oil and gas sector will play a crucial role in achieving the Prime Minister’s vision of USD 5 trillion economy. He mentioned that over the last few years the Government policies have metamorphosed the oil and gas sector in India and have placed the country as a preferred investment destination for the international community. He underlined the role of FIPI as a partner in growth of the Indian oil and gas industry and the federation’s contribution towards development of a supportive policy ecosystem for the industry. Mr Pathan pointed out that the oil and gas industry will have to play a crucial role in making cleaner fuel accessible to all at affordable prices. He admired the PSUs for their relentless efforts to make the Prime Minister Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) successful and touching the lives of over 8 Crore under privileged families.

The next session was a talk on ‘Energy Transition’ delivered by Anirban Mukherjee, Managing Director and Partner, BCG. Setting the tone for the conference Mr Mukherjee pointed out that the fourth energy transition is presently underway and its imperative for oil and gas companies to change strategies and offerings with time. He mentioned that as the world’s requirement for energy increases there will be an increase in demand for both hydrocarbons and alternate fuels. However, the share of each fuel in the overall energy basket may vary.

The next session of the day was ‘Future of Refining Industry’ with Mr. Prabh Das, CEO, HMEL; Mr. B Ashok, CEO, Ratnagiri Refinery; Mr. S. M. Vaidya, Director (Refineries), IOCL; Mr. P. Raghavendran, Advisor, RIL; and Mr. L. K. Vijh, Director (Technical), EIL. The panellists strongly believed that refining industry will continue to thrive as oil will be the main stay in the energy basket in the next couple of decades.. The panellists agreed that with a strong demand forecast for petrochemical products, refineries must develop future-ready integrated structure with quick switch-over configuration to roll out products as per varying needs.

The second panel discussion was on ‘Evolving Natural Gas Markets in India’ with Mr. D. K. Sarraf, Chairman, PNGRB; Mr. S.K. Moitra, Director (Onshore), ONGC; Mr. Rajeev Kumar, Director, BP; Mr. Rajiv Sikka, CEO, IndianOil-Adani Gas and Mr. Manoj Jain, Director (BD), GAIL as panellists. Speaking at the panel Mr D K Sarraf, Chairman, Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) informed the industry members that the regulator is considering measures such as tariffs standardization, alternate model for pipeline investment, CGD model policy and establishment of natural gas trading hub to develop a matured gas market in India.

Panellists at the next session on ‘Industry Collaboration to Drive Innovation, Efficiency and Technology Adoption in Upstream Oil & Gas’ were Mr. Amar Nath, Joint Secretary (E), MoP&NG; Mr. Ashutosh Bhardwaj, Dy. DG, DGH; Dr. P Chandrasekaran, Director (E&D), OIL; and Mr. Anand Laxshmivarahan R, Chief Digital Officer, Cairn Oil & Gas, Vedanta Ltd. It was discussed that with large unexplored areas in the sedimentary basins of India, companies must look for collaborations to achieve success and mitigate risks. Progressive policies, efficient use of resources, innovative marketing mechanisms, and usage of digital innovation will drive the industry forward.

At the last panel discussion on ‘The Tax Conundrum’ panellists were Mr. Satpal Garg Member PNGRB), Mr. Sandeep Kumar Gupta, Director (Finance), IndianOil; Mr. Kartikeya Dube, VP & Tax Director, BP; and Mr. A. K. Tiwari, Director (Finance), GAIL; The panellists agreed that GST has proven to be the single most transformative reform in independent India and has simplified doing business in the country. However, the panellists were of the opinion that the non-inclusion of the five key petroleum products crude oil, MS, HSD, ATF and natural gas have resulted in huge stranded input tax credit and is bottlenecking the growth of the sector. There was a general consensus that though natural gas and ATF may occur as the low hanging fruits for inclusion under GST, the industry should push for immediate inclusion of all key petroleum products.

Next session was a talk by Dr. Avinash Kumar Agarwal, Professor, IIT Kanpur on ‘Future of the Internal Combustion Engines and Existential Threat from Battery Electric Vehicle’. Dr Agrawal assured the industry participants that IC engine vehicles, owing to their better optimised energy density, will continue to constitute an integral part of mobility. He mentioned that with evolution of hybrid IC engines, the world will see a significant increase in increase in efficiency and performance with lesser emissions.

The conference concluded with CEO’s panel discussion on ‘Energy Transition’ were Mr. Sanjiv Singh, Chairman and Managing Director, IndianOil; Mr Sashi Mukundan, Reagional President, Head of country – India, BP; Mr Prabh Das, MD & CEO, HMEL; Mr M K Surana, CMD, HPCL and Dr Ashutosh Karnatak, CMD, GAIL. It was discussed energy transition will depend on country’s energy sources and own need for development. The panellists agreed that the fourth energy transition is inevitable, however, hydrocarbons will continue to play a major role globally over the next few decades in making energy accessible to all at affordable prices.

The evening marked the celebrations and the distribution of the FIPI Oil & Gas awards 2019. The FIPI Oil and Gas Awards have been created to recognise the leaders, innovators and pioneers in the oil and gas industry. The objective of the FIPI Oil & Gas Awards is to celebrate the industry's most outstanding achievements. This year FIPI revisited the Awards evaluation scheme and made it more objective by adopting quantitative parameters to the extent possible. The parameters for existing awards have been modified and some new categories of awards have also been introduced. New categories awarded this year included ‘EPC company of the year ‘and ‘Young Achiever of the year’ in both male and female categories. The ‘Exploration and Production company of the year’ has been split into two categories viz. ‘Exploration company of the year’ and ‘Development and Production company of the year’. The ‘Responsibly Growing company of the year’ and’ Environmental Sustainability company of the year’ have been merged and modified to include more sustainability related parameters. This award shall henceforth be known as ‘Sustainably Growing Corporate of the year’.

The FIPI Oil and Gas Awards 2019 ceremony was graced by the presence of, Shri Dharmendra Pradhan, Union Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas and Steel the chief guest. The Minister awarded individuals and companies under 19 different categories for their outstanding contribution to the Indian oil and gas sector. In the award evening’s inaugural address, Shri Sanjiv Singh, Chairman IOCL & FIPI highlighted the role of the oil & gas sector in meeting the country’s energy demand and the efforts made by FIPI to advocate conducive policies for the sector.

In his key note address chief guest of the evening, Shri Dharmendra Pradhan, underlined that owing to the India’s huge demand for energy and aspiration for better standards of living, the country is set to emerge as the epicentre for growth of global energy demand. He emphasized that affordable energy is the need of the hour and set a vision for oil and gas industry to grow as a catalyst for social change in the country. He mentioned that the energy sector has the potential to improve the lives of people in the country and it is the responsibility of the oil and gas companies to realize the Hon’ble Prime Minister’s vision of making clean fuel available to all at affordable prices. He further pointed out that technological innovation is the backbone for development of the energy sector and it is the need of the hour to encourage young talent for innovating and developing new business models.

Winners of FIPI Awards 2019

The FIPI Annual Summit and Awards 2019 proved to be a resounding success and received wide media coverage. The large scale participation from industry members at the event stood testimony of the unparalleled faith the sector places on FIPI as a partner and hand holder, leading the industry to a high growth trajectory.