News Release Details
Subir Raha’s nostalgic visit to IiPM
New Delhi 27-Jun-2007
Mr. Subir Raha, former Chairman of ONGC & Director (HR), IndianOil, was overwhelmed by old, happy memories of his times with IndianOil while revisiting the Vision Tree Hall at IiPM, Gurgaon on June 26, 2007. He was a guest speaker for the Summer School programme organized jointly by Petrotech & IndianOil on “Petroleum Refining & Petrochemicals” from June 25 to June 30, 2007. Addressing a distinguished gathering of academia & industry comprising participants of three programmes being held concurrently at IiPM viz. Summer School, Cutting Edge & Leadership Impact & Influence - he was at his effusive best. He recalled that the idea of starting Summer School Programme on the lines of a similar exchange programme in which students from USA used to visit Jadavpur University – his alma mater. He initiated this proposal, when he was Chairman of Petrotech Society, to encourage collaboration & exchange of ideas between the academia and the oil industry. He requested the crowd to give due importance to the principles and not get bogged down with the processes, so as to arrive at the best solution. He further stated, “it should be our endeavour to ensure that maximum value addition is done to the molecule of hydrocarbon (oil and gas reserve) which was formed through natural processes over billions of years so as to extract optimum profits for this non-renewable source of energy and the name of the game today is Value Addition as the further you go down the product Value Chain, more profits are added geometrically.” He traced the history and diverse usage of oil during the last century which gradually led to extraction of new products through advances in refining technology all tracing their origin from the versatile hydrocarbon molecule of which oil & gas is formed. He also mentioned, “Most global oil refineries are integrated in refining petroleum & petrochemicals. IndianOil is now adopting similar path for Paradip Refinery and expanding further down the Value Chain in Gujarat, Panipat and other existing Refineries. Integrated operations for Public Sector Units, shall also help optimise on Infrastructure and Human Resource costs which are relevant today due to mounting subsidy burden coupled with shortage of professional, experienced and competent manpower. Indian refineries have geared up for the challenge by introducing cleaner & greener fuels to combat the threat of global warming. “ Mr. Raha dwelt on the prospects of other fossil fuels, non-conventional and renewable sources like wind, solar energy and new technology areas like hydrogen fuel cells. He stressed on the importance of conversion techniques like GTL (Gas to Liquid), coal gasification and CTL (coal to liquid) - the latter being especially relevant for India with its vast coal reserves. He exhorted the participants of Summer School from academia to include these frontier areas of energy solutions in the curriculum of chemical engineering so as to prepare our engineers for the next decades. He spent some time to take a round of the IiPM campus & appreciated the efforts put in by Mr. Anand Kumar to transform it in to a world-class training institute by upgrading the infrastructure & facilities.
New Delhi 27-Jun-2007
Mr. Subir Raha, former Chairman of ONGC & Director (HR), IndianOil, was overwhelmed by old, happy memories of his times with IndianOil while revisiting the Vision Tree Hall at IiPM, Gurgaon on June 26, 2007. He was a guest speaker for the Summer School programme organized jointly by Petrotech & IndianOil on “Petroleum Refining & Petrochemicals” from June 25 to June 30, 2007. Addressing a distinguished gathering of academia & industry comprising participants of three programmes being held concurrently at IiPM viz. Summer School, Cutting Edge & Leadership Impact & Influence - he was at his effusive best. He recalled that the idea of starting Summer School Programme on the lines of a similar exchange programme in which students from USA used to visit Jadavpur University – his alma mater. He initiated this proposal, when he was Chairman of Petrotech Society, to encourage collaboration & exchange of ideas between the academia and the oil industry. He requested the crowd to give due importance to the principles and not get bogged down with the processes, so as to arrive at the best solution. He further stated, “it should be our endeavour to ensure that maximum value addition is done to the molecule of hydrocarbon (oil and gas reserve) which was formed through natural processes over billions of years so as to extract optimum profits for this non-renewable source of energy and the name of the game today is Value Addition as the further you go down the product Value Chain, more profits are added geometrically.” He traced the history and diverse usage of oil during the last century which gradually led to extraction of new products through advances in refining technology all tracing their origin from the versatile hydrocarbon molecule of which oil & gas is formed. He also mentioned, “Most global oil refineries are integrated in refining petroleum & petrochemicals. IndianOil is now adopting similar path for Paradip Refinery and expanding further down the Value Chain in Gujarat, Panipat and other existing Refineries. Integrated operations for Public Sector Units, shall also help optimise on Infrastructure and Human Resource costs which are relevant today due to mounting subsidy burden coupled with shortage of professional, experienced and competent manpower. Indian refineries have geared up for the challenge by introducing cleaner & greener fuels to combat the threat of global warming. “ Mr. Raha dwelt on the prospects of other fossil fuels, non-conventional and renewable sources like wind, solar energy and new technology areas like hydrogen fuel cells. He stressed on the importance of conversion techniques like GTL (Gas to Liquid), coal gasification and CTL (coal to liquid) - the latter being especially relevant for India with its vast coal reserves. He exhorted the participants of Summer School from academia to include these frontier areas of energy solutions in the curriculum of chemical engineering so as to prepare our engineers for the next decades. He spent some time to take a round of the IiPM campus & appreciated the efforts put in by Mr. Anand Kumar to transform it in to a world-class training institute by upgrading the infrastructure & facilities.