Oil India opens new office in Houston

OIL CMD Utpal Bora

INDIA'S second largest oil PSU after ONGC, Oil India Limited has opened its office in Houston which will be managed by Oil India (USA) president Gautam Sharma. Sharma has been assigned to monitor the company’s minority partnerships with US independents Carrizo Oil & Gas in the Niobrara shale play and Anadarko Petroleum Corporation’s Area Rovuma 1 natural...
gas field offshore Mozambique (4% participating interest).
Oil India follows ONGC and GAIL (Gas Authority of India Ltd) in setting up offices in Houston. OVL (ONGC Videsh Ltd), the international subsidiary of ONGC, owns participating interests in 37 projects in 17 countries with oil and gas companies that are either headquartered in Houston or have major offices here. GAIL opened its office after the company signed a 20-year sales and purchase agreement with Sabine Pass Liquefaction, a unit of Cheniere Energy Partners, for the supply of 3.5 MMt/year of LNG.
Newly appointed Oil India’s CMD Utpal Bora was in Houston earlier this week to attend meetings with Carrizo and Anadarko.
Bora used the visit to also hold meetings with major oilfield service companies Schlumberger and Halliburton and Ganesh Thakur, who recently joined the University of Houston as a distinguished professor of petroleum engineering after retiring from Chevron as V.P. and Global Advisor and president of SPE in 2012. Bora also met leading oilfield executives of Indian origin at a dinner hosted by the Consulate General of India. One of Bora’s objectives in his Houston meetings was to attract advanced technologies to help Oil India reverse declining production from its mature fields.
Oil India’s oil production declined from 3.5 MMt (26.09 MMbbl) during 2013-14 to about 3.41 MMt (21.42 MMbbl) during 2014-2015. “We hope to reverse the decline through artificial lift and EOR/IOR and increase annual production to 3.5 MMt,” Bora was quoted as saying.
Bora also expressed an interest in reviving the Indo-American Energy Advisory Forum in association with the Consulate General of India in Houston to help achieve technology transfer for India’s oil and gas industry. India's oldest oil company, Oil India Limited, was made a state owned PSU in 1981. Today, OIL is a premier oil company engaged in the business of exploration, development and production of crude oil and natural gas, transportation of crude oil and production of LPG. OIL also provides various E&P related services and holds 26 per cent equity in Numaligarh Refinery Limited. History of this Navratna PSU is as old as India’s oil and petroleum.