OIL signs MoU with Houston univ to augment reserves base

Oil India Limited (OIL) has signed an MoU with the University of Houston in a bid to augment its reserves base and maximise recovery from its ageing oilfields.
The MoU was inked on Tuesday in the presence of Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
The MoU was signed by Utpal Bora, CMD, OIL, and University of Houston (UH), represented by Chancellor and President Renu Khator.
Terming the MoU as historic, Pradhan said this will go a long way for the pilot study of CO2 capture technology application in Assam oil fields.
"Innovation, institutional hand-holding and scientific temperament is the way ahead for oil and gas sector's growth," Pradhan said.

"If there is (a) good strategy, innovative technology and willpower, a good ecosystem can be formed that will help in more oil recovery from the oilfields," Pradhan said.

The major focus of the MoU is collaboration in the areas of improved oil recovery and enhanced oil recovery (EOR) for augmenting the production from matured fields, improvement in drilling and well intervention practices, seismic interpretation and reservoir characterisation studies, and unconventional hydrocarbon studies.
"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 and 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," Pradhan said.

It is believed that this 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 set by Prime Minister Modi to reduce import dependency of oil and gas by 10 per cent by 2022.
"OIL is also in talks with NRG (NRG Energy Inc.), a leading power company in the US and world leader in de-carbonisation, who along with its partners completed construction on the world's largest post-combustion carbon capture system on-budget and on-schedule for using it for EOR project," OIL spokesperson said.

"NRG can help OIL to assess CO2 availability from the nearby industry sources and support as well as advise viability of Carbon Capture and Sequestration pilot project," the spokesperson said.