Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri Visits OIL Pavilion at India Energy Week

Hon’ble Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas and Housing & Urban Affairs Shri Hardeep Singh Puri complimented Oil India Ltd (OIL) and its subsidiary Numaligarh Refinery Ltd for their strategic work and path breaking initiatives, which are helping India secure its energy requirements. The Hon’ble Minister, who visited Oil India’s sprawling pavilion at the ongoing India Energy Week, said while Oil India has taken several laudable steps to enhance India’s hydrocarbon output, he specifically congratulated the PSU Maharatna for its Mission 4+ to enhance production and NRL’s path-breaking initiative of ethanol production from bamboo at its biorefinery in Assam. 

 Earlier in the day, OIL hosted an international conference titled ‘Energizing the Future: CCUS Strategies’ on Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage (CCUS) that will continue till 9th February, under the aegis of Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas at the ongoing India Energy Week in Goa. Hosted in collaboration with ONGC, the conference is aimed at addressing the pressing need for sustainable solutions in the energy sector and promote collaborative efforts towards mitigating carbon emissions and decarbonizing the economy.

 The opening session was graced by Shri Pankaj Jain, Secretary, MoP&NG, Shri Arun Kumar Singh, Chairman & CEO ONGC, Dr. V K Saraswat, Member, NITI Aayog and Dr Ranjit Rath, Chairman and Managing Director, OIL.

 As part of his opening remarks at the conference, Shri Pankaj Jain said, “Carbon capture and storage is indeed important for the oil & gas industry, especially as the world transitions towards a low carbon future. In de-carbonization, the oil and gas companies have to make investments and play crucial role in the broader efforts to combat climate change and achieve global emissions reduction targets”.

 Dr V K Saraswat, Member, NITI Aayog, in his keynote address gave insights and broad overview of the necessity of CCUS, carbon mission abatements, Indian NDC targets and India’s clean energy transition strategies. Dr Saraswat restated CCUS’s role in emissions reduction to enable a low carbon and sustainable future.

 OIL CMD Dr Rath as part of his welcome address reiterated how energy transition is inevitable and CCUS can stabilize energy supply by reducing emissions and assist in achieving the net zero targets. This conference shall be an enabler to discuss technology innovation and formulate regulatory framework for a sustainable energy solution, he added.

 Other esteemed dignitaries present during the session were Ms Vartika Shukla, CMD, Engineers India Limited, Dr Prasanna V. Joshi, Vice President (Technology), ExxonMobil and Mohit Bhargava, CEO, NTPCREL and senior dignitaries from the oil and gas sector.