While exhorting the industry captains present to strengthen the country’s oil & gas sector the Shri Pradhan congratulated the two companies in the private sector and five in the public sector as well as the individuals who received the awards. Shri Dharmendra Pradhan commended the apex hydrocarbon industry association, PetroFed for instituting the awards in 2007 to recognise and nurture talent and excellence in the oil & gas industry operating in India. He emphasized on the need to enhance domestic production of oil & gas and achieve the target of reducing import dependence by 10% by 2022.

Minister on the occasion also released The Oil & Gas Year 2015 publication on India. The book tells the story of a transition in the making and addresses the steps taken across the country’s energy value chain over the past year.The Secretary, Petroleum & Natural Gas, Shri K. D. Tripathi lauded the PetroFed initiative and while congratulating the award winners urged industry members to diligently work towards enhancing energy security of the country by augmenting production of oil & gas and improving energy efficiency.Welcoming invitees Chairman, PetroFed and Chairman, Indian Oil Shri B. Ashok highlighted the need for keeping the spirit of healthy competition alive through such awards. We can take pride in the fact, he said, that with an expected growth of 7.5%, India, for the first time is leading the growth chart of the World Bank for major economies.

While giving a brief about the awards the Director General, PetroFed Shri A. K. Arora pointed out that the awards were reviewed every year for improvement and all companies operating in India in the oil & gas sector were eligible without any application fee. At the suggestion of the Jury in 2014 a new award, which could be a game changer, was instituted. A Special Commendation Award, he added, is conferred to encourage closely competing entries.All awardees were presented a trophy and a citation. Indian Oil Corporation Limited bagged the Leading Oil & Gas Corporate of the Year award for the fourth time in eight years. It also bagged the Oil & Gas Marketing – Company of the Year and the Human Resources Management – Company of the Year awards. In the new award category, Game Changer – Oil & Gas Company of the Year, they were conferred a Special Commendation jointly with LanzaTech Inc. in recognition of their special effort for ‘Pioneering R&D’ in production of omega fatty acids by algae using acetates produced by fermentation of carbon dioxide. The Woman Executive of the Year award was bagged by Ms. Mamoni Basumatary, Senior Manager (Technical Services) from IndianOil’s Guwahati Refinery. In addition to a trophy and a citation she also received a cash award of Rs. one lakh.

The Innovator of the Year – Team award was bagged by the eight-member team of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited for their indigenous development and commercial application of cost effective gasoline sulphur reduction catalyst additive for Fluid Catalytic Cracking using spent FCC catalyst in refineries. The team was led by the Head of their Corporate R&D Centre, Shri Sanjay Bhargava and each member of the team received a cash prize of Rs. 62,500/-. In the Innovator of the Year – Individual category a Special Commendation was conferred on Shri Gnana Kumaraswamy Batta, Senior Geophysicist, Oil India Limited for his innovation on utilising low frequency seismic data interpretation for locating subsurface oil & gas and reducing exploration risk. Oil & Natural Gas Corporation Limited won the awards for Exploration & Production – Company of the Year and Project Management (Rs. 500-2000 crore) for their Cluster-7 project involving construction and installation of five new well platforms at Mumbai High Offshore and laying of 19 segments of rigid sub-sea pipelines of about 198 km with associated modification at existing platforms and a new Pipeline End Manifold.

The Oil & Gas Pipeline Transportation – Company of the Year award was bagged by Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited while the Environmental Sustainability – Company of the Year was chosen to be Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited.For the second year in succession no award was conferred for Drilling Services – Company of the Year. No application was received for Project Management (above Rs. 2000 crore) – Company of the Year award.It was explained at the function that the award winners were selected through a rigorous process of collation by knowledge partner PricewaterhouseCoopers, evaluation by the Awards Committee led by Dr. Prodipto Ghosh, Distinguished Fellow, TERI and former Secretary to the Government of India, and selection thereafter by an eminent Jury headed by the former Chief Justice of India, Hon’ble Mr. Justice M. N. Venkatachaliah. The other two members of the Jury are Dr. Anil Kakodkar, former Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission and Shri Naresh Narad, former Chairman, Public Enterprises Selection Board and Secretary to the Government of India.Concluding the proceedings and proposing a vote of thanks, Shri P. Raghavendran, Vice Chairman, PetroFed and President (Refinery Business), Reliance Industries Limited highlighted the objectivity and competitive fervour of the PetroFed Awards

Shri Dharmendra Pradhan, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Petroleum and Natural Gas, and Shri Bhartruhari Mehtab, Member of Parliament, were also present on the occasion.