Director-General of Hydrocarbons (DGH), SCL Das has urged the exploration & production (E&P) sector to mainstream the agenda of digitisation as part of their core corporate agenda.
“It is mainstream in the government agenda now and industry must also incorporate this to reduce inefficiencies,” he added.
Addressing the webinar ‘Digital Transformation of the Indian E&P Industry’, organised by the industry chamber Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI), on Monday, Das said, “Digital transformation and adoption of innovative digital technologies should be included in the business process of re-engineering, operations and decision making.”
Highlighting the importance of digitisation in the E&P sector, he stated that the industry should encourage an innovation-driven culture within the company’s eco-system which would help collectively raise public awareness and put the Indian E&P sector at the forefront of the digital revolution.
“The government remains committed to foster and facilitate the rapid adoption and deployment of new technologies in the eco-system. We will support the industry initiatives through which the bar of digitisation is raised across the spectrum of the E&P industry including the small and medium enterprises,” he said.
Das further emphasised on the use of data science in a much more significant way.
“Oil and Gas sector needs to have a more focused digital strategy. There is a lot of data available but there is also a need for data science to make more informed decisions in the sector,” he noted.
He said that the DGH was planning to use digitalisation to further enhance access of data, improve the ease of doing business and capacity building for the industry.
“Going digital is enabling us to find greater value in our existing business and this is the opportune time to find new ways of doing business. These technologies assist in strategic decision making to data-driven insights, reducing cost, optimising operating models, automating manual operations, etc.”
He further said that it was necessary to change the entire ecosystem as a whole and not as an isolated process to get sustainable results.
Highlighting the challenges faced by the industry, Das said that the government was working to ensure all pain points are removed to promote ease of doing business.
“We have recently launched the self-certification for several online processes and within a month, all processes will be online. We are also upgrading a single-window clearance portal and making them more comprehensive so that it becomes a ‘one-touch and go’ process,” he assured.
Prashant Modi, Co-Chair, FICCI Hydrocarbons Committee & Managing Director & CEO, Great Eastern Energy Corporation Ltd (GEECL) said that the government, in the last few years, had launched several bold transformational policies in the E&P sector. This would not only help in creating a conducive environment for investments in the sector but also lower the dependence on imports.
“For ease of doing business, there is an urgent need for the rules to be automatic, based on self-certification. Digitisation will create several efficiencies and there is tremendous untapped potential in India, which can be explored through this,” he added.