2005 - Oil India Limited

OIL beyond territorial barriers
Dr. V.K. Kelkar
Chairman, Bureau of Industrial Costs and
Pricing and former OIL Director, 1987
The time has not come for OIL to consider exploits outside of E&P. Oil India is one of our two premier exploration and
production companies, and E&P should remain its primary tasks.
At this juncture the country's economic priority in the energy sector would be to intensify exploration so as to gauge
and develop the hydrocarbon potential at our command. Oil India should seriously add to this effort by expanding
geographically. By acquiring more acreage both onshore and offshore the company can balance its risks and chart
out a strategic course of action based on both commercial returns and establishing potential for future exploitation.
OIL has commercial interests and exploration risks can be offset by judicious planning. All oilfield services, for
example, should be hired, and to the maximum extent the newest technology utilized. Only production equipment
need be owned by the company.
By remaining an E&P Company OIL can continue to be one of our profit leaders. LPG extraction by both OIL and
ONGC was undertaken because of convenience, there were no other companies who could easily set up the required
infrastructure in the vicinity of the gas off-take points. But OIL should intensify operations in the existing concessions,
including Assam, so as to maximize production.
After consolidating its E&P interests, OIL can think of diversification into other forms of energy generation that are
today considered non-conventional. But this is for the future.
Oil India's batting average has been very good its got excellent geologists and other technical personnel and I see very
promising innings ahead.
B.C. Bora
General Manager (Production)
(Former Chairman & Managing Director, OIL & ONGC)
OIL, over the years, has built up expertise in exploration, production and transportation of crude oil and natural
gas. These are our main areas of strength and, therefore, we should rather expand our activities in these fields
instead of trying to diversify into other fields.
Various organizations have already come up in the country, both in the private and in the public sectors in allied
fields like refining, gas processing, manufacturing, etc. I do not think it would be right for OIL to intrude into their
areas of expertise.
However, OIL should diversify to areas like consultancy services, project management and turn-key project
implementation in the field of its expertise, such as seismic data acquisition and processing, drilling, reservoir
engineering, production engineering, pipeline transportation, gas handling and transportation, engineering
services, gas turbine power generation, etc. For this purpose, OIL will have to attract the best available talents from
the international market by offering remuneration packages comparable to international rates. Therefore, it would
be necessary to make these services group of OIL work as a separate profit centre with an aggressive profit oriented
incentive scheme and marketing approach.
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