Oil India Limited signs MOU with University of Houston to increase production

NEW DELHI -- Oil India Limited (OIL), an upstream oil and gas public sector utility, has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the University of Houston (UH), with the intent of augmenting its reserves base and maximizing recovery from its aging oilfields.

The MOU was signed on Oct. 5, 2016, in the presence of Dharmendra Pradhan, Hon’ble Minister of State, Petroleum & Natural Gas at New Delhi. The University of Houston is a premier institution, involved in the quest of academic and translational excellence in the field of oil and gas through its outstanding faculty and research staff and has an established, well documented partnership with leading edge academia and industry subject matter experts.

The MOU, amongst others, is focused to collaborate in the fields of improved oil recovery and enhanced oil recovery for production enhancement from mature fields, seismic interpretation and reservoir characterization studies, improvement of drilling and well intervention practices and unconventional hydrocarbon studies.

University of Houston was represented at the signing ceremony by UH Professors Ramanan Krishnamoorti and Ganesh Thakur.

It is envisaged that the collaboration will help OIL to further consolidate and upgrade the various initiatives the company has undertaken to improve production and contribute significantly to the energy security of the country. This will also contribute towards national obligation as set by Prime Minister Modi to reduce import dependency of oil and gas by 10% by 2022.

Consul General of India, Houston, Dr. Anupam Ray worked closely with Oil India Ltd, which has an office in Houston, along with University of Houston, on the deal which is expected to show results soon.

 Dharmendra Pradhan lauded Utpal Bora, CEO, OIL for his initiatives and said –

“I truly believe that the signing of this landmark MOU is just the beginning of collaboration between India and the US academia and industry in the upstream hydrocarbon sector. I hope that the benefits of this partnership between these two institutions would trickle down to the Indian E&P sector and help increase our domestic production of oil & gas, thereby strengthening India’s energy mix and securing India’s energy needs to fuel the desired economic growth in the medium to long term.”