OREANDA-NEWS. Tapas Kumar Sengupta has taken over as the new Director (Offshore) of Energy Maharatna ONGC on 1st February 2014. Mr. Sengupta took over the reins of this important portfolio of Board of the most valuable Indian public enterprise, after the superannuation of his predecessor Mr. P K Borthakur on 31st January 2014.

A first-class Chemical engineering graduate from Jadavpur University, Calcutta, Sengupta also commands a Diploma in Management from Indira Gandhi National Open University.

Near six feet Tapas Kumar Sengupta is one of the select club of production engineers who has a balanced exposure to both onshore and offshore. His onshore experience portfolio comprises of Well Services in Gujarat and Assam for 11 long years and 4 years in Sudan as part of ONGC Videsh. His 4 years overseas tenure at Sudan as a General Manager in Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company, saw an increase of the oil production through innovative engineering interventions.

Of his 18 years in Offshore fields off Mumbai, he served for 12 years in Mumbai High in Well Services, successfully handling a number of production-enhancement assignments. He was the Project Coordinator for New Technology jobs like Water Shut-Off & Gas Shut-Off in difficult wells of Mumbai high in 1992-94. Sengupta was also instrumental in improving performances of ONGC's offshore sick well inventory.

Sengupta has been a silent catalyst in many of ONGC's organizational turning points. He was associated with Organisational Transformation Project (OTP - precursor of CRC) launched in 1997 as a part of first Multi-Disciplinary Team member in the Neelam Pilot on Arabian Sea.

On taking over as Director (Offshore) in Delhi on 1st February 2014, Mr. Sengupta said, “In the current era of difficult oil, we need to make concerted efforts and catalyse meaningful and pro-business efforts to have a 360 degree approach to augment productivity of our offshore assets.” A confident Sengupta said, “I am optimistic that with the support of all stakeholders, ONGC will move north in its national pursuit of taking India closer to energy independence by 2030.”

His oil-field successes apart, Sengupta also commands a rich armoury of academic excellence. Besides being a regular keynote speaker on a number of occasions, he has also chaired international conferences like Petrotech, SPE, IDEC and OCEANTEX. He authored a number of technical papers, contributing immensely to the E&P literature. He was actively associated with SPE India and has been awarded “Distinguished member” in 2012 - the highest award by SPE International.

Though a workaholic, Sengupta is never 'All Work and No Play'. His passion for music is a close second to his search for rhythm in oil-field operations. While he is not tied to any specific genre, Western country songs, Hindi Bollywood classic numbers, Modern Bengali songs and Rabindra Sangeet occupy the top slots. Besides music he is a sports lover and plays cricket and also solves Crosswords and Sudoku in his spare time. He may not have much spare time now, though.