MoU with Pan IIT by ONGC for Exploration of Hydrocarbon The Minister of State (I/C) for Petroleum & Natural Gas Shri Dharmendra Pradhan informed the Rajya Sabha in a written reply today that Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC) and Pan-IIT has signed a Memorandum of Collaboration (MoC) on 19th January, 2015 at New Delhi to work towards a collective R&D Programme for developing indigenous technologies to enhance exploration and exploitation of hydrocarbons and alternate sources of energy. Under the MoC, ONGC's R&D Institutes and the IITs shall jointly undertake advanced research and development projects for the Exploration and Production (E&P) sector of the country in general and oilfield specific activities of ONGC in particular. The MoC also envisages promoting internships, visiting and adjunct faculty programmes, research oriented career programmes through an ONGC Scholar Programme. Within the ambit of this collaboration, ONGC will make its laboratories available to the students and research scholars of IITs. Also, ONGC geoscientists and engineers will have the opportunity of working with IITs. As per MoC, for the smooth functioning of the collaborative research programme, Director, IIT Kharagpur is the Coordinating Director representing Pan-IIT Forum and Director (Exploration), ONGC will be the Coordinating Director representing ONGC. For smooth steering of the programme and overall guidance & monitoring of progress, a two-tier mechanism has been envisaged comprising of (a) Programme Advisory Committee(PAC), the apex body to review the activities and approve annual budget & recommend Corpus Fund etc. and (b) Thematic Research Committee(TRC), the nodal body for all research related activities in respective thematic areas. MJPS/Rk
