Dinesh Kumar (DK) Pande

Mr. Dinesh Kumar Pande is the Director (Exploration) of Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), India (appointed by the government of India on 23 Sept, 2005 through Presidential appointment).

A petroleum geologist by profession, Mr.Pande joined ONGC in 1976 as a graduate trainee, after earning his masters degree in Applied Geology. In his 29 years of service to ONGC, he has covered all the facets of exploration and development business. Beginning at the ONGC R&D institutes i.e. KDMIPE and GEOPIC, he expanded as a field explorer in the fields of Assam & Arakan fold belt. He took up the role of an exploration manager at the Frontier Basin in Dehradun, India. As Executive Director and Basin Manager of Western Offshore Basin, India he was responsible for implementation of the entire deepwater exploration program of ONGC along the east and west coasts of India.

His contribution in the sphere of exploration and field development has always been innovative. His thought-provoking idea of conceptualizing unconformity as a seal led to the major discovery of Ravva oil field in the Eastern Offshore of India. His advocacy of exploration for deeper plays culminated in discovery of oil in basal clastics in Assam Shelf and new hydrocarbon fairways in Panna Formation in Western Offshore of India. It was Mr. Pande’s innovative idea of multicyclic deposition in Bassein Formation that led to the discovery of multilayered nature of Bassein reservoir in Mumbai Offshore area. His concept on Strati-structural plays on the Bombay-Bassein platform have opened new vistas for exploration in Mumbai offshore. He introduced the concept of Transfer zone structural styles in Gondwana grabens which has major implications in the hydrocarbon potential of the Gondwana Basins of peninsular India.

Mr. Pande is spearheading ONGC’s key web based Information Management initiatives across the organization. The project EPINET (Exploration & Production Information Network) is getting implemented successfully across the 21 geographical sites of ONGC under his mentorship.  He has been the principal guiding force towards the EPINET compliant Current Data Management Reporting practices roll-out across ONGC recently for exploratory data types. As Director (Exploration) of ONGC he has been playing a key role towards other major IT initiatives and value chains i.e. Real time information SCADA development; up-scaling of G&G applications & VRC (Virtual Reality Centres) development etc.

In his aforesaid endeavors to improve efficiencies and upstream capabilities he feels strongly for the following to in place not only for ONGC but in the larger interest of other mega oil companies as well:

  -  Up-scaling of integrated information technology solutions to further improve 
     O&G productivity.
  -  Continued improvements in current E&P application verticals
     duly complemented by effective data management practices & standards.
  -  Aligning IT & DM strategies with upstream business requirements.

The solution to the aforesaid issues would require a serious brainstorming and participation of oil companies, vendors, research bodies, NDR’s etc. in a vendor neutral environment. POSC has been quite active for some time now to provide some of the open specifications and desired standards to achieve certain level of information modeling, information management and data/application integration environment over the E&P asset life cycle. With added thrust; initiatives and specialists participation from oil companies in POSC SIG’s and other meetings things could improve further.

Mr. Pande, as a Director on the POSC Board, would like to carry forward the aforesaid issues in a consensus and participative environment using POSC SIG’s as a primary building block.

Mr. Pande has represented ONGC in various international events. He was an invited speaker at the 27th International Geological Congress, Moscow. He was the operational manager and deputy leader of the 4th Antarctica-Indian expedition to Antarctica (1984, and was the deputy leader of Trans-Motor Expedition across the Himalayas. Mr. Pande has numerous publications to his credit in various National and International geological journals. He was an invited delegate at 17th World Petroleum Congress, September 2002. He is a life member of Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI), Hyderabad, India. He is an active member and 'Advisory Board' member of the Association of Petroleum Geologists (An affiliate of AAPG, USA). Mr. Pande had been a national level cricket player, having lead the Indian state of Haryana in India's national cricket championship for many years.