The Hindu Business Line : Petroleum Economic Zone proposed

The Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Mr Mani Shankar Aiyar, flanked by the Petroleum Secretary, Mr M.S. Srinivasan (left), and the Director-General of Hydrocarbons, Mr V.K. Sibal, during a session on R&D in upstream and downstream hydrocarbon sectors, in the Capital on Saturday. — Kamal Narang

New Delhi , Jan. 7

THE domestic hydrocarbon sector has mooted the setting up of a Petroleum Economic Zone where international service providers could be encouraged to set up research and development (R&D) centres.

Briefing media persons after a day-long session on research and development in upstream and downstream hydrocarbons sector, the Petroleum Minister, Mr Mani Shankar Aiyar, said that a working group under the chairmanship of Mr Sanjay Burman Roy of Reliance Industries Ltd has suggested setting up of a petroleum economic zone which would help to make India a major service provider in the sector.

The working group to suggest a strategy for encouraging world-class service providers to set up world-class R&D and processing centres in India was constituted in March 2005. The group was asked to look into the option of a nucleus/ hub to be developed near Delhi or at any other location where infrastructure could be developed for such organisations to set up their centres. The group submitted its report on Saturday.

The Minister said that at the end of today's session, it was suggested that a joint working group of the Ministries of Coal, Mines, Science and Technology and Defence Research and Development Organisations be constituted to bring under one roof the concerted and multi-dimensional research work of all the organisations. It was also suggested to set up two bodies - integrated petroleum technology forum and integrated methane technology forum.

Further, the Minister said that there is a proposal from the upstream sector that under the aegis of Petrofed, a body representing the hydrocarbons sector, an industry wise knowledge base be developed to supplement the progress already made by the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) to set up National Data Repository and National Technology Bank. The intent behind setting up these two centres was to make available data easily accessible to operators, and make it available online, he said.

He said that a network of multi-disciplinary and multi-institutional approach was required to exploit the unexploited hydrocarbons reserves of the country and bring it to the centre stage of the global hydrocarbons scene. It has been proposed to hold an international conference in the last quarter of this year.