New Delhi: The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and Oil India Ltd (OIL), a Navaratna national oil company, inked an umbrella memorandum of understanding (MoU) to pursue technological partnership in select domains across the energy value chain. This will be a collaborative arrangement between labs of CSIR and OIL.

The MoU was signed by Dr N Kalaiselvi, DG, CSIR and Secretary, Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) and Dr Ranjit Rath, CMD, OIL. The event was graced by D (O) and D (E&D) of OIL, MD (NRL), JS & FA (CSIR), JSA (CSIR), LA (CSIR), Heads of Scientific Directorate of CSIR and other senior officers both from OIL and CSIR.

The umbrella MoU puts in place a formal framework for collaboration between OIL and CSIR labs. The objective of the MoU is to facilitate collaboration for pursuing research in advanced technologies for energy security. The preliminary areas identified for joint R&D activities and technology partnership include new frontier areas in hydrocarbon exploration and upstream and downstream operations.

Dr Ranjit Rath said OIL has a long association with CSIR labs like IIP and NEIST and has been working together in past. The present MoU will open the gateway for collaboration with all the labs of CSIR. “OIL being an integrated energy company intends to be at the forefront in terms of technology adoption in the energy value chain with a global presence providing value to the stakeholders. The collaboration with CSIR would play a catalytic role to achieve these objectives in mission mode,” he added. /BI/