Technology

ONGC today is one of the most established and well renowned companies in the field of oil exploration

and production in India. The core activities which are involved in oil exploration and production are to

develop, operate fields to extract crude oils and natural gas and to continue exploring and searching for

new oil reserves. Hence the process needs advanced technologies and highly skilled labor to be

accomplished successfully. Also the technical complexity of the work to be done is high and the inputs

needed for the exploration and development of oil reserves need to be good.

Strategy and Technology:

In the late 1990’s, ONGC felt that the reason for their declining sales was their obsolete technologies and

hence to overcome this problem they adopted the following two strategies.

The first strategy adopted was of acquiring MRPL for their advanced technology which helped them to

attain Euro II standards. The vertical integration strategy adopted by ONGC which included acquiring MRPL

gave them th1e advantage of the advanced technologies adopted at MRPL.

The second strategy was adopted in 2000’s by which they employed Increased Oil Recovery

(IOR),Enhanced Oil Recovery(EOR),SCADA.They also adopted virtual reality interpretation centers and ERP

system which covered all aspects of MIS,and the best possible systems available for data

exploration,compilation,monitoring and processing

Continuing this strategy Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) of India has a five-year contract with

Baker Hughes to provide drilling and evaluation services and to manage third-party services for the

Platinum Explorer drillship.Under the terms of the contract, Baker Hughes will supply directional drilling,

measurement-while-drilling, logging-while-drilling, surface logging services, drilling fluids, liner hangers,

cementing and coring services. Baker Hughes also will manage third-party services for air and sea logistics,

the onshore base, and wellheads. Vantage Drilling’s Platinum Explorer drillship is capable of drilling high-

pressure, high- temperature (HP/HT) wells in water depths up to 10,000 feet

Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) also has signed an agreement with Super Wave Technology for doing

research on alternative technology for hydraulic fracturing. Hydraulic fracturing requires very large

quantity of fresh water and huge quantity of energy for pumping the same at very high pressures. Post

hydraulic fracturing, the well produces substantial quantity of effluent water which has to be disposed

of.These are issues regarding safe disposal of the water.Super Wave Technology (SWTPL) is a company

incorporated by Society for Innovation and Development, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.

It also has signed an agreement with seven IITs for developing indigenous technologies to enhance

exploration and production of hydrocarbons and alternate energy sources.

The industry-academia collaboration is aimed at bolstering 'Make in India' campaign in energy sector,

ONGC signed the Memorandum of Collaboration (MoC) with Pan-IIT, a consortium of seven premier Indian

Indian Institutes of Technology - IIT-Kharagpur, IIT-Kanpur, IIT-Madras, IIT-Mumbai, IIT-Delhi, IIT-Guwahati

and IIT-Roorkee.The MoC also ideates promoting internships, visiting and adjunct faculty programs,

research oriented career programmes through an ONGC Scholar Programme.With this collaboration, while

ONGC will use intellectual expertise of the IITs, the actual work will be done at the ONGC's in-house R&D

Institutes and oilfields to enable the best talents of the country to supplement each other by applying

their mind on cutting-edge technologies to boost oil & gas production in the country.