Oil India Limited and IIT Bhubaneswar signed major Research Collaboration agreement in the IIT Bhubaneswar campus

Oil India Limited a Navratna Company under the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas, Government of India and Indian Institute of Technology Bhubaneswar signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on 16th November 2022 at IIT Bhubaneswar campus paving the path for joint research collaborations between the two institutions in the area of earth sciences, basic sciences and engineering. Some of the research focus include Upstream, Midstream and Downstream segments of the Oil and Natural Gas value chain entailing hydrocarbon exploration, development, production, reservoir management including IOR & EOR, pipeline transportation, refining & process technologies; application of Geosciences, Engineering & Design, Chemical & Process Technologies, application of GIS and Remote sensing studies for upstream and midstream assets including infrastructure developments and Environmental Studies, alternate source of Energy including New and Renewable energy resources, such as Solar, Wind, Geothermal, Energy Management both in terms of efficiency and storage; carbon capture usage & storage.

Speaking on the occasion the Director of IIT Bhubaneswar Prof. V K Tewari emphasized need of research on the niche areas of joint collaboration. He advised the team of professors on how to respect the essence of time and to continuously follow up so that the results would be visible. He also cited about the spirit of National Educational Policy and the strong resolve of Government to make India Atma Nirbhar and Viswaguru by 2047. The government has lot of expectations from industries and institutes and rather than just teaching the emphasis to be laid on developing a product.

The Chairman & Managing Director, Oil India Limited, Dr. Ranjit Rath expressed happiness over the joint collaboration and reiterated that the initiative will provide students and faculty at IIT Bhubaneswar to closely interact with the Oil India team including field experience in the state-of-art technology involved in hydrocarbon exploration. Further, both teams will together explore new frontier areas in the related field. The long-term goal for the MoU is to build strong industry-academic interaction that will facilitate new discoveries in academics and develop cutting-edge technology for the industry.

Also present on the occasion Dean of student affairs Prof P V Satyam, Prof Brahma Deo, Dean Faculty Prof. Saroj Kumar Nayak and Registrar Shri Debaraj Rath. The brief ceremony closed with vote of thanks from the Registrar of the Institute.