The 2008 SPE Indian Oil and Gas Technical conference and exhibition was held in Mumbai recently. M S Srinivasan, Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum, Government of India inaugurated the event amongst a large gathering of international experts and esteemed professionals from the Oil and Gas sector from across the world. In his inaugural speech, Srinivasan said that India is the world's sixth largest consumer of energy and its demand for petroleum products is growing by more than 6 per cent annually. 

"With nearly US$ 250 billion of investment required in the major segments of the Indian oil and gas industry, the government has opened up the sector to foreign investment allowing 100 per cent foreign ownership," he added. 

Dr Leo Roodhart, SPE president for the year 2009 stated that the three-day event focuses on India's rapidly developing upstream oil and gas market and addresses the technological advances needed to meet the increasing demand for energy. "The conference offers special events that provide unmatched opportunities to learn from industry experts and network with other professionals from around the world," Roodhart added. 

Speaking at the SPE 2008, R S Sharma, CMD, ONGC, said, "The high crude oil price regime that has spurred operators to reconsider investment in hitherto capped projects that were unviable at lower returns. The introduction of NELP for opening up the exploration acreage, which has encouraged the participation of international operators and service companies in the Indian market. The technology challenges lie in deeper waters and monetisation of marginal fields." 

Sharma went on to add, "Demand has remained totally insensitive to the prices. Surplus capacity has almost been exhausted given the production done by OPEC member nations. We are the 5th largest consumer of energy but consumption is still 1/3rd of the global consumption. Nearly 28 MT of reserves are estimated in India; only a fraction of this is being explored." 

P Dasgupta, CEO & MD, Petronet LNG, said, "The future of natural gas would depend on the development of the NG pipeline grid, implementation of regulatory regime and de-regulation of the domestic gas market." Stating that the potential demand in India depends upon India's GDP growth, Dasgupta added further: "Petronet is expanding capabilities, and is increasing LNG share in the gas supply portfolio. Petronet has set up LNG storage tanks at Dehaj; facility at Kochi and a second jetty at Dahej. It has also decided to invest in a power plant at Dahej and Kochi, and is setting up an experimental LNG transportation through truck filling stations." 

I L Buddhiraja, Head (oil and gas) of Reliance Industries, remarked that the biggest challenge is the need to explore further. "There are many unexplored areas," said Buddhiraja, "and gas prices, I feel, are an opportunity. The challenge is to gas hydrate. The world has more gas than oil. Exploration of gas is necessary. There's nothing that a gas can't do and what oil can." 

Kapil Garg, managing director of BG Group, said that India is a huge market waiting to be exploited. "Much of the produce goes to controlled markets." Reasoning that LNG imports to India exceeded that of Japan for the first time recently, with oil prices above US$ 100 per barrel funds for exploration in India is not going to be an issue, he opined.