by Santanu SaikiaThe age-old adage If it ain't broke, why fix it? has, of late, found an altogether new Aiyeresque interpretation. The irrepressible petroleum minister, fervent in his attempts to stand up and be counted, has redefined the mantra to include an innovative Mani-maxim: I'm gonna fix it anyway! Despite his propensity to lapse into a flush of hyperbole, altogether alien to the petroleum industry, Mani Shankar Aiyar has increasingly taken to rolling up his sleeves and getting a hands-on feel of the slippery petroleum experience.
The jumpy journey traversing the twin universes -- between the fantasy world of Finding Neverland and the horrific reality of Hotel Rwanda -- occasionally appears to border on the dramatic dualism of life. But that's Aiyar for you -- a curious heroic protagonist, where Peter Pan
meets Paul Rusesabagina! So if at one moment he holds forth on the El Dorado waiting to be discovered deep beneath the Deccan lava or the possibility of discovering half-a-dozen fields the size of the D-6 gas discovery in the deep waters off the Indian coast, you can be sure at the next instance, Aiyar would have a huge put-down for the E&P monolith ONGC -- "old in the tooth" is how he describes it -- for not doing enough to find the oil equivalent of the Shangri-La. Aiyar is a man with a mission, after all, who believes he has all the answers. He is of the opinion that the gap between fact and fantasy in this case lies not in the absence of hydrocarbons but in ONGC's inadequate deployment of technology and its inefficient effort on the E&P front. He is, however, candid enough to admit his failure in pushing ONGC to see the world through his prism.
As a result, the engaging game of ping-pong continues. And the score never seems to settle at love-all! In one of his first major decisions, Aiyar pruned ONGC's ambitious Rs 30,000 crore plan to diversify into LNG, power and petrochemical projects. In its place, the minister wanted ONGC to concentrate entirely on its core E&P strengths. The ONGC brass, on its part, felt that Aiyar's grand vision was a trifle myopic when viewed from ground reality. ONGC was quick to point out that there just wasn't enough E&P work in this hydrocarbon-poor country to keep the company's indisputably large resources fully deployed.
Aiyar believes the exploration major desperately needs to make a giant technological leap, to go where no man has ever gone before -- to find oil -- but the ONGC maintains that it has left no stone unturned in its effort to do its job. The minister, not one to give up easily, has been incessantly rooting for strategic tie-ups with technology savvy oil companies such as Statoil. ONGC, on the other hand, says that these national oil companies aren't willing to part with their technology until they are given a more substantial stake in ONGC's pie, a stipulation which the government doesn't allow. Besides, the oil major is quick to point out that advanced technology is already at work in Indian waters in an attempt to sniff out oil and gas -- though some of the results, particularly in the East Coast, appear to be encouraging, others were not.
Aiyar, in place of being a bull in a china shop, is bullish nonetheless: He's decided to take the bull by the horns. Invoking the Mani mantra, I'm gonna fix it anyway, Aiyar has assembled a disparate group of technologists from government research institutes, academia and private and public sector companies. The group met for a brainstorming session last week in New Delhi, raising more than a few eyebrows. Aiyar is understood to have sat through most of the interactions, familiarizing himself with terms like 4D surveys, geo-microbiology, thin & tight bed reservoir resolution, 3D volume interpretation, casing while drilling, digital oil field, non-linear dynamic analysis.... At the end of the day, he personally supervised the drawing-up of a list of E&P technologies in which India does not have requisite expertise. Clearly, his gameplan is to nurture a series of collaborations -- between foreign E&P companies and research institutes and their Indian counterparts -- in an attempt to bridge the technology divide by facilitating a two-way flow of information.
The meeting last week also set up Working Groups in an attempt to build a National Data Repository and a National Technology Bank, in a private-public partnership. Aiyar believes that the data available at these two centres should be as accessible to users as any library. He also appointed a group -- under the chairmanship of the petroleum secretary -- to suggest measures to build world-class human capital in the hydrocarbon sector, along the lines of the IT industry. An executive from Reliance Industries Ltd was nominated to head another group to investigate whether or not multinational oil companies and service providers would be interested in setting up research facilities in India -- on the same lines as those by IT majors, automobile companies and pharmaceutical multinationals in the West. A working group was also set up to evolve modalities for peer review of R&D work done within India, particularly by the research institutes promoted by ONGC.
There can be no denying that R&D lies at the core of any movement forward. But is Aiyar missing the wood for the trees? There are no simplistic solutions to the complex issues that mire the system as it currently exists. It's one thing discussing the vagaries of international crude market with the likes of Saudi crown prince Abdullah at the OPEC headquarters in Vienna or billion dollar investment plans in Russia in the Kremlin with energy minister Viktor Khristenko, it's quite another dealing with the nuts and bolts of the often-appalling apparatus on home territory. Undoubtedly, Aiyar deserves praise for his diplomatic coups abroad. But it's quite a different ball game when it comes to dealing with the real world. For one, government or public sector research institutes have failed to deliver on the R&D front because of systemic drawbacks. A larger emphasis on these institutes would be counter-productive unless fundamental changes are affected in their management systems. While private R&D initiatives have a better chance of success, the results will not necessarily flow to companies like ONGC, except on strictly commercial terms. In fact, the success of the minister's vision lies in the ability to transfer new technology to the field. And this is where public sector companies such as ONGC face a hurdle in the form of their archaic procurement systems. The lowest bidder may not have the best technology, in this case. ONGC is now working on strategic alliances with major service providers such as Schlumberger, Baker Hughes and Halliburton to formulate tender documentation in a manner to avoid the pitfalls of public sector tendering.
Aiyar's grand vision, undoubtedly, is impressive but far too 20:20 in an imperfect system -- of which ONGC is an inextricable part -- that the minister has set his sights on. Unfettered, unlike ONGC, he can have a dream which is as at once futuristic as it is phantasmagorical. The compulsions that reign in ONGC occupy quite another time-warp. And can the twain meet? If Mani Shankar Aiyar has the last word, he'll fix it. Anyway!
meets Paul Rusesabagina! So if at one moment he holds forth on the El Dorado waiting to be discovered deep beneath the Deccan lava or the possibility of discovering half-a-dozen fields the size of the D-6 gas discovery in the deep waters off the Indian coast, you can be sure at the next instance, Aiyar would have a huge put-down for the E&P monolith ONGC -- "old in the tooth" is how he describes it -- for not doing enough to find the oil equivalent of the Shangri-La. Aiyar is a man with a mission, after all, who believes he has all the answers. He is of the opinion that the gap between fact and fantasy in this case lies not in the absence of hydrocarbons but in ONGC's inadequate deployment of technology and its inefficient effort on the E&P front. He is, however, candid enough to admit his failure in pushing ONGC to see the world through his prism.
As a result, the engaging game of ping-pong continues. And the score never seems to settle at love-all! In one of his first major decisions, Aiyar pruned ONGC's ambitious Rs 30,000 crore plan to diversify into LNG, power and petrochemical projects. In its place, the minister wanted ONGC to concentrate entirely on its core E&P strengths. The ONGC brass, on its part, felt that Aiyar's grand vision was a trifle myopic when viewed from ground reality. ONGC was quick to point out that there just wasn't enough E&P work in this hydrocarbon-poor country to keep the company's indisputably large resources fully deployed.
Aiyar believes the exploration major desperately needs to make a giant technological leap, to go where no man has ever gone before -- to find oil -- but the ONGC maintains that it has left no stone unturned in its effort to do its job. The minister, not one to give up easily, has been incessantly rooting for strategic tie-ups with technology savvy oil companies such as Statoil. ONGC, on the other hand, says that these national oil companies aren't willing to part with their technology until they are given a more substantial stake in ONGC's pie, a stipulation which the government doesn't allow. Besides, the oil major is quick to point out that advanced technology is already at work in Indian waters in an attempt to sniff out oil and gas -- though some of the results, particularly in the East Coast, appear to be encouraging, others were not.
Aiyar, in place of being a bull in a china shop, is bullish nonetheless: He's decided to take the bull by the horns. Invoking the Mani mantra, I'm gonna fix it anyway, Aiyar has assembled a disparate group of technologists from government research institutes, academia and private and public sector companies. The group met for a brainstorming session last week in New Delhi, raising more than a few eyebrows. Aiyar is understood to have sat through most of the interactions, familiarizing himself with terms like 4D surveys, geo-microbiology, thin & tight bed reservoir resolution, 3D volume interpretation, casing while drilling, digital oil field, non-linear dynamic analysis.... At the end of the day, he personally supervised the drawing-up of a list of E&P technologies in which India does not have requisite expertise. Clearly, his gameplan is to nurture a series of collaborations -- between foreign E&P companies and research institutes and their Indian counterparts -- in an attempt to bridge the technology divide by facilitating a two-way flow of information.
The meeting last week also set up Working Groups in an attempt to build a National Data Repository and a National Technology Bank, in a private-public partnership. Aiyar believes that the data available at these two centres should be as accessible to users as any library. He also appointed a group -- under the chairmanship of the petroleum secretary -- to suggest measures to build world-class human capital in the hydrocarbon sector, along the lines of the IT industry. An executive from Reliance Industries Ltd was nominated to head another group to investigate whether or not multinational oil companies and service providers would be interested in setting up research facilities in India -- on the same lines as those by IT majors, automobile companies and pharmaceutical multinationals in the West. A working group was also set up to evolve modalities for peer review of R&D work done within India, particularly by the research institutes promoted by ONGC.
There can be no denying that R&D lies at the core of any movement forward. But is Aiyar missing the wood for the trees? There are no simplistic solutions to the complex issues that mire the system as it currently exists. It's one thing discussing the vagaries of international crude market with the likes of Saudi crown prince Abdullah at the OPEC headquarters in Vienna or billion dollar investment plans in Russia in the Kremlin with energy minister Viktor Khristenko, it's quite another dealing with the nuts and bolts of the often-appalling apparatus on home territory. Undoubtedly, Aiyar deserves praise for his diplomatic coups abroad. But it's quite a different ball game when it comes to dealing with the real world. For one, government or public sector research institutes have failed to deliver on the R&D front because of systemic drawbacks. A larger emphasis on these institutes would be counter-productive unless fundamental changes are affected in their management systems. While private R&D initiatives have a better chance of success, the results will not necessarily flow to companies like ONGC, except on strictly commercial terms. In fact, the success of the minister's vision lies in the ability to transfer new technology to the field. And this is where public sector companies such as ONGC face a hurdle in the form of their archaic procurement systems. The lowest bidder may not have the best technology, in this case. ONGC is now working on strategic alliances with major service providers such as Schlumberger, Baker Hughes and Halliburton to formulate tender documentation in a manner to avoid the pitfalls of public sector tendering.
Aiyar's grand vision, undoubtedly, is impressive but far too 20:20 in an imperfect system -- of which ONGC is an inextricable part -- that the minister has set his sights on. Unfettered, unlike ONGC, he can have a dream which is as at once futuristic as it is phantasmagorical. The compulsions that reign in ONGC occupy quite another time-warp. And can the twain meet? If Mani Shankar Aiyar has the last word, he'll fix it. Anyway!
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