It is indeed difficult to imagine the ONGC without the Keshava Deva Malaviya Institute of Petroleum Exploration (KDMIPE). It is the premier R&D centre of ONGC in Dehradun and got its identity on December 19, 1981.
ONGC has nine R&D institutes that are being independently managed. The KDMIPE is the premier centre for basic and applied research in petroleum exploration and deals with the research needs of the various ONGC regions in the areas of basin analysis, petroleum economics, geosciences, and developing alternative sources of energy. It was founded in 1962 with an objective to provide geo-scientific back-up to the exploratory efforts of India’s national oil company, ONGC.
It was named the Keshava Deva Malaviya Institute of Petroleum Exploration (KDMIPE) on 19th December, 1981 by the then Prime Minister of India late Indira Gandhi in the memory of ONGC’s first chairman. The original name of KDMIPE was Research and Training Institute (R & TI). As its activities and scope expanded, it was given the new name of the Institute of Petroleum Exploration (IPE) in 1971. And finally, in 1981, it became KDMIPE. The ONGC museum at Tel Bhavan in Dehradun displays several historic letters, including the one written by KD Malaviya, the young Parliamentarian, to Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, expressing determination of a young nation to find oil of its own.
ONGC has its origins in the Oil and Gas Directorate of the Union Government. In the early 1950s, the international oil lobby sought to prove that India had no producible reserves of oil or gas. But Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Union Minister for Natural Resources Keshav Dev Malaviya knew better. Nehru said: “A country that does not produce its own oil is in a weak position. From the point of view of defence, the absence of oil is a fatal weakness.”
In August 1956, the Oil and Natural Gas Commission was set up, with Malaviya as its chairman. Malaviya was a chemical engineer by education and his commitment to India’s scientific and technological progress was a shining example of patriotism to the younger generation of political workers and a source of strength to the scientific community. Despite many odds, he fought for India’s right to have its own national oil industry. He is undoubtedly the father of the Indian oil industry.
Primarily, the Institute was a nodal agency for applied research on all aspects of oil exploration and development. It first undertook basin studies of the various sedimentary basins in the country. Next, it submitted to ONGC, what it called its second opinion, arrived at after reinterpretation and reassessment of scientific and technical data in respect of exploration.
KDMIPE is today operating as the nodal agency for multi-disciplinary synergistic basin scale and domain specific research in exploration. It has over 300 highly experienced scientists in the domain of geo-scientific research, E&P data management and resource and acreage appraisal of overseas properties that are sought to be acquired by ONGC Videsh ltd. (OVl).
KDMIPE undertakes research activities in the various fields of geosciences, mainly basin research, basin modeling, structural analysis, geochemistry, high resolution gravity and magnetic data acquisition, magneto-telluric studies, remote sensing, petrography, geochronology, bio-stratigraphy, radiometric dating, petro-physical analysis, PVT studies and water shut off studies. The work carried out is broadly classified under Conventional Research Group and Unconventional Research Group. It has several state-of-the-art laboratories spread over entire KDMIPE campus.
In its eventful journey of more than 50 years, this institute has been instrumental in transforming the R&D activities and provided valuable support to the oil and gas exploration of the ONGC, which still remains the most productive company in oil and gas production of the nation.