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A Centre of Excellence for oil, gas and energy has been established at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay. The centre will be working towards identifying solutions and energy resources that can be obtained indigenously while developing solutions for the challenges faced by industries.
Amid the rising energy consumption issues faced by India, a Centre of Excellence in Oil, Gas and Energy has been established at the campus of the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IITB). The establishment of the centre has taken place during the talks of foreign investment in the sector of Oil and Gas. The CoE will be working in partnership with six Indian PSUs, who are also responsible for the Centre’s funding as well.
As per the partnership, the CoE will be working with six different PSU, in the sector of oil and gas. The PSUs include Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd, Gas Authority of India Ltd, Oil and Natural Gas Corp., Oil India Ltd and India Oil Corporation along with Engineers India Ltd. The Centre will be working with the PSUs to undertake research initiatives which will take research projects “from lab to implementation-ready stage in mission mode”.
The Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Dharmendra Pradhan, had proposed the idea of establishing the centre at IIT Bombay, as per a statement by IIT-B. Earlier this year, a Memorandum of Understanding had been signed.
Dr Anil Kakodkar, who chaired the first meeting of the Centre’s governing council on 7th November 2019, stated that the Centre will be working towards securing energy resources in India to reduce the rising prices of importing energy, which is becoming unsustainable. He added that the centre will be contemplating on the methods of implementing non-conventional ideas. Dr Kakodkar was one of the members of a high-level committee that had been elected by the Petroleum Ministry.
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Dr Anil Kakodkar further stated that the idea of setting up a centre was to study the possibilities of implementing Artificial Intelligence, digital refineries and other concepts which can be implemented to develop leadership in the discipline. He also mentioned that the centre will look into answering the question of whether the country will be able to acquire most of its energy requirement through biomass.
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Among the duties that have been assigned to it, the centre will be working towards identifying areas of importance and undertake projects as per the requirements of the industry. Dr Kakodkar added that the centre will look into the short-term challenges. The advisory council of the centre also consists of members from various industries.
