Inaugural SPE Indian oil and gas conference

India is emerging as a leading 'hotspot' for upstream activity: the world's major players are lining up to participate in the inaugural SPE Indian oil and gas technical conference and exhibition

With highly-respected individuals and companies from both India and around the world already confirmed to take part, the launch event to be held in Mumbai from 4-6 March 2008 is expected to establish itself as the main Indian upstream event.

The biennial show's standing is further enhanced as it is being organised by the long-established partnership between the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) and Reed Spearhead Exhibitions (RSX), which already work together on other major oil and gas events including Offshore Europe in Aberdeen, Intelligent Energy in Amsterdam, and Russian Oil and Gas in Moscow.

Acting as Chairman of the event Technical Programme Committee is Mr N K Mitra, Director (Offshore) of the Indian ONGC (Oil and Natural Gas Corporation), the national oil company.

His fellow committee members include several colleagues from ONGC, as well as representatives from Reliance Industries, BP, Chevron, Shell, ExxonMobil, Oil India, Cairn Energy, Halliburton, Schlumberger, Weatherford, Baker Hughes, CERA and Harbison.

Mr Mitra said: "The conference theme is: 'The Changing Landscape: Emerging Opportunities in the Indian E and P Industry'.

The multidisciplinary programme includes issues surrounding Reservoir Management, EOR/IOR, Deepwater Exploration and Production, HSE, HR/Training and Development, etc that will address technology challenges facing the Indian E and P Industry as well as explore technological advances needed for the continuously increasing demand on energy consumption.

The quality of the technical conference put together under the guidance of the Society of Petroleum Engineers is undoubtedly one of the key attractions for attendees at E and P events.

We would still welcome further submissions of abstracts for the conference at this stage".

A call for papers was issued in July with the initial deadline set for 15 September, with the content of the agenda-setting conference programme to be firmed up and papers accepted by the following month.

Other topics expected to be featured include: marginal fields; offshore infrastructure development; offshore facility engineering; mature field development; production; drilling; completions; facilities; coalbed methanes; and non-conventional resources.

Also on the committee is Ms Lesley-Ann Sandbach, Managing Director of joint organisers RSX.

She commented: "This is a technical conference and exhibition for senior executives, engineers and industry professionals that will bring national and international E and P companies to the Indian market to debate and invest in technology transfer and solutions.

The unique technical content of this event will provide a superb technical environment for knowledge exchange and group networking.

And it is being driven by an outstanding industry committee of experts from across the value chain".

Confirmed exhibitors already include major operating companies such as ONGC as well as service companies such as Weatherford, amongst others, and these will all be showcasing the latest state-of-the-art technologies, services and expertise available.

The event will be held at the Bandra Kurla Complex, MMRDA Ground in Mumbai.

India is the fourth largest economy in the world and the third largest consumer in Asia but currently imports the vast majority of its oil and gas.

Its policy to increase domestic reserves and production has already started to pay off, with some of the world's largest ever gas finds having been made in the deepwaters off India's east coast and onshore Rajasthan.

The country remains one of the least explored regions in the world, with a well density of 20 per 100 sqkm.

Of the 26 sedimentary basins, only 8 have been explored so far.

The level of international interest recently prompted India to offer its largest amount of acreage ever in its latest NELP round.

The country's predicted hydrocarbon resources are currently put at between 29-33billion tonnes of oil equivalent, of which 10 BTOE are onshore, 12 BTOE offshore and 7 BTOE in deepwater.

However, analysts believe that more than 81% of the country's hydrocarbon potential still remains to be explored.

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