National Conference on Advances in Petroleum Science and Technology (NCAPST 2021)

A two day conference entitled ‘National Conference on Advances in Petroleum Science and Technology’ was organized jointly by SPE Dibrugarh University Student Chapter in collaboration with SPE Indian Institute of Petroleum and Energy Student Chapter, Visakhapatnam in virtual mode on 29th and 30th October, 2021. The conference began with the inaugural address by Prof. L.K. Nath, Honourable Vice-Chancellor, Dibrugarh University and Prof. V.S.R.K. Prasad. Honourable Director, Indian Institute of Petroleum and Energy followed by the keynote address by Dr. Manas Kumar Sharma, Executive Director, Oil India Limited. The keynote address entitled ‘An Overview on Sustainable Development and Current Challenges in Oil and Gas industries’ emphasized on sustainable development with the importance of increasing domestic production to cope up with the growing energy demand of the nation. It also emphasized the importance of collaborative research schemes by industries and academia and the associated challenges. The first technical session was addressed by Mr. Prem Kumar Verma on ‘Shale Gas Exploration and Production’. The session emphasized the important properties of shale formations and the methodologies of the extraction of shale gas from unconventional reservoirs. It also focused the seismic and logging attributes along with the associated produced water management in an effective manner. A world wide overview of current status of shale gas exploration has been also provided in the presentation. The next technical session was delivered by Mr. Ghana Gogoi on ‘Downhole Drilling Problems and its Remedies’ with special focus on Down hole problems, problem solving mechanics, stuck pipe mechanisms, as well as indications of the downhole problems at the surface. The session also enlightened the importance of teamwork in oil field to tackle up any undue emergency. The fourth technical session was addressed by Ms. Minnie Gogia on ‘Role of Petroleum Engineers in Reservoir Management’ which included planning, procastic development of reservoirs with the use of material balance, decline curve analysis, reservoir simulation tools, etc. Additionally the techno economic and social aspect has been briefed by the guest speaker in the context to develop an oil field and to make it production ready. The fifth technical session was delivered by Dr. Ajay Mandal on Advances in enhanced oil recovery techniques. The session demonstrated a comparative study on water flooding with EOR technology with aspects of oil recovery efficiency. The session also enlightened different EOR processes including polymer flooding, chemical flooding and thermal recovery techniques along with an insight of microbial EOR. The next technical session was addressed by Dr. (Mrs.) Subrata Borgohain Gogoi on ‘Carbon neutrality through combined CO2 capture and sequestration and novel H2 technology with production of non-conventional fuels’ which emphasized on a green integrated strategy by capturing CO2 from BCPL in line with production of synthetic fuels as a substitution of fossil fuels. The session also emphasized on the impact of the project in Indian research scenario along with innovations in solar hydrogen production. The seventh technical session was delivered by Dr. Polash Pratim Dutta on ‘Impact of AI and ML in oil and gas industries and its recent advances and research opportunities’. The session began with a brief introduction of AI and its classification followed by applications of neural networks in petroleum industry. It also deliberated the ML approach with the necessity in varied sectors in Oil and Gas industry with the help of Fuzzy logic approach. The last technical session of the conference was addressed by Mr. Santanu Medok on ‘Health, Safety and Environment in Oil and Gas Industry’. The session enlightened the aspects of occupational health and safety in hazardous industries along with the impact on environment. Sir has also provided us with an insight of major accidents that have occurred in the industry which led to fatalities and monetary loss reviving the importance of safety at work place. The conference ended with a panel discussion themed as impact of COVID 19 in oil and gas industry attended by four panelists, Mr. Sanjay Baruah, Mr. Abhijeet Anand, Mr. Ankesh Nagar and Mr. Partha Protim Maut moderated by Dr. M.A Chowdhury. The panel discussion aimed at discussing the impact of the pandemic on people, industry, energy transition associated with it and the skills required post COVID-19 era. The panelists expressed their views on the aforementioned aspects with special emphasis on the changes that have been encountered in the industry and provided us with an insight to tackle and cope up with the changing environment in the post covid-19 era. The conference was wrapped up by Dr. Borkha Mech Das madam and Dr. Himangshu Kakati sir faculty advisors of SPE DU SC and SPE IIPE SC respectively followed by overview of the conference by Mr. Sharahnan Puzari, President, SPE DU SC and vote of thanks by Ms. Kumari Agrani, President, SPE IIPE SC.