The primary objective of the programme was to acquaint the industry with India’s recent success stories in making global outreach in the Oil & Gas sectors and the keenness of the Government to encourage more efforts in this direction.

At the outset, Dr. R.K. Malhotra Director General, FIPI welcomed all the distinguished guests and set the context of the programme. He thanked Mr. Sunjay Sudhir, Joint Secretary (IC) MOP& NG for sparing his time and agreeing to address the gathering.

In his presentation, Mr. Sunjay Sudhir gave an overview of India’s recent forays in the Oil and Gas sector in the international arena. He elucidated on the Government of India’s approach for encouraging Indian oil & Gas Companies in making overseas investments which was aimed at using energy as the tool for diplomacy and was in sync with foreign policy of the Govt. He mentioned about the policy stance which focussed on ‘Neighbourhood first” and ‘Act East’ and assured that Govt. is working closely with the oil and gas industry and will continue to extend the required support to promote such efforts of the industry. He gave an account of some of the recent acquisitions in the upstream sector by Indian companies in Russia, UAE and Oman. He also mentioned about the support extended by Govt of India in re-negotiation of LNG contracts which resulted in substantial savings to the country. On building new partnerships, Mr Sunjay Sudhir, mentioned about the recent business tie-ups and bilateral arrangements of Indian Companies with countries like USA, Russia, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Japan, and Israel. He particularly mentioned about the 50% stake being taken by Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi in the 60 MMT refinery proposed to be built in Ratnagiri on the west coast of India.

He also mentioned about the presence of Indian Oil and gas companies in neighbouring countries like Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, Mauritius and Myanmar. He made a mention of the International Think-Tank (ITT) formed by MoP&NG to advise the Government on issues related to pricing gas infrastructure, better financial models for exploration and extraction of hydrocarbons and reducing import dependency.

This was followed up by a panel discussion of senior industry leaders which was moderated by Dr. R.K Malhotra. The panel comprised of Shri Biswajit Roy, Director (Business Development and HR), OIL and Shri Rajeev Kumar, Director(Regulatory Affairs & Upstream Business Development), BP India. The central theme of the discussion was focussed around the support and the big push being given by the Govt through a series of policy reforms which will go a long way in promoting bi-lateral ties between Indian oil and gas companies with their foreign counterparts. While Mr. Biswajit Roy, mentioned about the tremendous support being received by Indian companies from the Indian Govt for overseas ventures, Mr Rajeev Kumar echoed the same sentiments when it came to foreign companies coming to India for making investments. During discussions Dr. Malhotra also invited Mr. Prabhat Singh, MD, Petronet LNG Ltd to share his thoughts on the same. Mr. Prabhat Singh shared his experience in re-negotiation of the LNG contract and the support extended by Govt in resolving the dispute with Ras Gas of Qatar.

The event was attended by many senior executives from the oil and gas companies in India and was a highly successful one.