Bangalore:The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in April this year brought with it severe global attention to the importance of maintaining oil and gas assets. The fact is, ensuring the integrity of oil and gas assets is not just fiscally important but also has safety, health and environmental implications. Following this incident there have been several more such as the San Bruno pipeline burst and closer to home, the Mumbai oil tanker spill which have further cemented the need for maintaining asset integrity and developing all round asset integrity management systems.

Most multi-national corporations in the oil and gas space today have specialized ‘Asset Integrity’ departments which look after the maintenance of assets from the initial installation to periodic inspection and management of pipelines, offshore and onshore assets.

However, research by IQPC, (International Quality and Productivity Center) a premier media, research and event services organization, based out of New York with the Indian office headquartered at Bangalore, shows that this approach of just inspecting oil and gas pipelines and other assets is just not enough.

“Indian assets are highly aged, some up to 60 years and require a more intensive asset integrity management approach.” says A.K Hazarika, Director, Onshore, ONGC. Mr. Hazarika will be presiding as the Guest of Honour for the international summit being launched by IQPC in India on December 13 – 14 2010 at JW Marriott, Mumbai, to bring about awareness on this topic through discussing best practices, case-studies and panel discussions. The relevance of the topic is emphasized by T.D Williamson, one of the world’s premier asset integrity management solution providers setting up a facility in Vadodara, India, with an investment of more than one crore in October 2010.

With investment in India in the oil and gas infrastructure sector expected to double in the next three years after the launch of NELP IX and leaders like ONGC, GAIL, Indian Oil working on new projects with over 15,000 kilometres of pipelines being structured, it is important that asset integrity is given more significance.

IQPC’s Asset Integrity Management Summit, India will be addressing issues such as promoting asset life extension, sub-sea asset integrity, corrosion prevention through cathodic protection, structuring an overall Asset Integrity Management (AIM) system and many more pertinent topics and will feature high level speakers from organizations such as ONGC, Indian Oil, Shell, CAIRN India and Essar.

This will provide an opportunity to hear from experts such as A.K Hazarika (ONGC), Dr. Rabi Bastia (Reliance) and R.P. Nagar (NACE) who will provide invaluable insight and best practice.

IQPC’s continuous research over the past year specific to the Indian market has shown that the industry needs to be educated on the various asset integrity management techniques available, understand the challenges and solutions to overcome them, and address issues such as corrosion, pipeline/refinery/subsea integrity.