The three-day international event ‘Geo India 2018 – the 4th South Asian Geosciences Conference and Exhibition’ was inaugurated with great enthusiasm and high spirit on 6 September 2018 at the India Exposition Mart, Greater Noida. The bi-ennial event, being organized by ONGC, was inaugurated by the Director General, DGH Dr. V P Joy, Additional Seceratory, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas Mr. Rajiv Bansal, CMD ONGC Mr Shashi Shanker, MD ONGC Videsh Ltd Mr NK Verma, Director Exploration ONGC Mr AK Dwivedi, Basin Manger ONGC and President APG Mr M Ayyadurai and Director (Exploration and Development) Oil India Ltd. Dr P Chandrasekaran.
Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas and Skill Development Mr Dharmendra Pradhan was scheduled to inaugurate the conference. However, as he was preoccupied in some other important meeting, the Minister sent his best wishes through a video message which was hosted during the inauguration.
Addressing the gathering, DG DGH Dr. VP Joy said that geosciences conferences like this should aim to integrate knowledge from various fields. “Such integration will enable us to align with the today’s requirement, and add new plays and new basins in the coming years.”
Additional Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas Mr Rajiv Bansal said that under the current scenario of low rupee worth, high import dependency and growing Indian economy, focus is very high on the contribution of geosciences in augmenting their contribution in the energy security of the developing nation.
CMD ONGC Mr Shashi Shanker, on welcoming the dignitaries, participants, academicians and exhibitors emphasized on the theme of the biennial conference, Transforming Energy Spectrum: Geosciences at the Fulcrum. Mr Shanker said that such conferences provide a platform to not only learn about securing hydrocarbons but it has has exclusive sessions on new emerging fields in the industry like use of artificial intelligence in improving industry effectiveness, which can be gamechangers in the near future.
On sharing the moto of the event MD ONGC Videsh Ltd Mr NK Verma said that the conference and exhibition aims to promote out of the box thinking, interaction with partners from overseas and helps to identify new leads and technologies. He added that the basic tool of the geo-scientists is co-ordination, which, when put together stimulates working models.
Director Exploration Mr AK Dwivedi , who is the spearheading the organization of this GeoIndia event, in his welcome address said that ONGC is not limiting its current efforts in the seven basins which are in the current production map of India. “It is a challenge of the geoscientific community to bring more basins of the balance 19 basins in the production map of India. The geoscientific community is looking forward to add at least 3 more basins in the production map in the next 4-5 years. I am confident that new data we have got since 1996 and the new technologies will enable us to achieve that.”