2026 PRELIMINARY AGENDA
This year's summit offers a carefully curated agenda that explores the industry's most critical issues, including refining, petrochemical and chemical integration and expansion, new process and catalyst technologies, process optimisation and energy efficiency, digitalisation, analytics and AI, as well as energy transition technologies and more.
With India's refining capacity targeted to increase to 450 million tonnes per year by 2030, this year's conference provides an ideal platform to demonstrate how your solutions can help India achieve its ambitious expansion goals. Book your ticket today and be part of the industry’s next chapter!
Day 1
Welcome by Paul Mason
Director-BD, PTQ / Digital Refining
Keynote Address
• S. Bharathan, Director – Refineries, HPCL
• Arvind Kumar, Director – Refineries, IOCL
Address by Guest of Honour
S. Khanna, CMD, BPCL
Inaugural Address by Chief Guest
Sanjiv Singh, Group President & Member O2C Team, Reliance
Vote of Thanks & Presentation of Mementos
Adarsh Soni, Chairman, Organising Committee
Chairman: Rajiv Agarwal, Director (Tech), EIL
10:00 – 10:20 Future of Refining
Speaker: Dr. Partha P Maitra, President (S&I), RIL Mumbai
10:20 - 10:40 Hidden costs of bad data
Speaker: Jochen Geiger, Ametek Process Instruments
10:40 - 11:00 Slopless and Flareless FCCU Startup: A Structured Approach
Speaker: Mohd Aans Arif, Manager (Ops), BPCL Mumbai Ref
11:00 – 11:20 Integrated Profit & Energy Optimization for Crude Distillation for CDU Operations
Speaker: K.B. Srinivas, DGM, IOCL R&D
11:20 - 11:40 Eliminating measurement & uncertainty in Refineries
Speaker: Gaurav Chandakkar, VEGA
11:40 – 11:50 Q&A Session
12:15 - 12:35 To be confirmed
12:35 - 12:55 Digital handover of project data
Speaker: Shalini Verma, CGM, EIL
12:55 - 13:15 AI / ML Models in refinery optimization
Speaker: Dr. Jagadesh Donepudi, Director-BD, KBC
13:15 - 13:35 Advances in process optimization with energy and cost-efficient operation
Speaker: To be confirmed
13:35– 13:45 Q&A Session
14:45 - 15:05 Pathways to Net Zero in Petchem production
Speaker: Samya Gupta, SM-Tech, BPCL Ref
15:05 - 15:25 Low Carbon Intensity Syngas: Emerging Technologies
Speaker: Ajay Misra, JNK India
15:25 - 15:45 Decarbonizing Compression: Fully electric control as a low risk high impact lever
Speaker: Martin Hofniger, Hoerbiger
15:45 - 16:05 Energy saving and emission reduction Essential steppingstones to Net Zero
Speaker: Jay Jeong, Refining Process Specialist, Alfa Laval
16:05 – 16:15 Q&A Session
16:45 - 17:05 C4 Synergies: Unlocking Integrated Refining & Petrochemical Performance
Speaker: Vishal Varshney, BDM, Lummus
17:05 - 17:25 From Catalysts to Capital: Rethinking precious metal value in refining
Speaker: Kuldip M. Rawat, Sabin Metal Technologies
17:25 - 17:45 Innovative Pathway for Petchem
Speaker: Karthik Ramesh, Sr. Mgr, IOCL Ref
17:45 - 18:05 Solving the Sulphur dilemma in a Green Refinery
Speaker: Ayan Dasgupta, FLUOR
18:05 – 18:25 To be confirmed
18:25 – 18:40 Q&A Session
Day 2
09:00 – 09:20 Innovative scheme to maximize refinery H.P. flare gas recovery using Coker Blowdown system of DCU
Speaker: Debdulal Dasgupta, Sr. GM (Tech), RIL
09:20 – 09:40 Wash Oil Headers in Delayed Coking: Operational Impacts and Optimization Strategies
Speaker: Bandish Patel, Spraying Systems
09:40 – 10:00 ROGC Feed Quality Maximization: Debottlenecking Hydrogen gas system
Speaker: Shriman Dave, Sr. Technologist, RIL
10:00 – 10:20 HP-DUCER®: Reducing Pressure Drop and Extending Catalyst Life in Hydroprocessing Units
Speaker: Dr. Pramod Kumar, GM, HPCL R&D
10:20 – 10:40 Higher Margin with Integrated Refinery / Petrochemical Scheme
Speaker: Minaz Makhania, CTO, KBR
10:40 – 10:50 Q&A Session
1120 – 1140 Radiometric Density Profiling: Turning Process Insight into Energy and Chemical Efficiency
Speaker: Ralf Matthaes, Endress+Hauser
1140 – 1200 Digital Transformation in Project Governance
Speaker: Mousom Some, DGM (Petchem), IOCL Ref
1200 – 1220 To be confirmed
1220 - 1240 Enhancing sulphur recovery unit reliability with deep kinetic models
Speaker: Hari Vamsi Duggirala, Optimised Gas Treating
12:40 - 12:50 Q&A Session
14:00 - 14:20 NASH Vacuum Technology Role in India’s Net Zero Ambitions
Speaker: Sukanya Pawar, NASH Vacuum
14:20 - 14:40 Bio-Bitumen: Enhancing Sustainability using Lignocellulosic Biorefinery Residue
Speaker: Dr. Satyen Kumar Das, CGM, IOCL R&D
14:40 - 15:00 Exploring Waste-to-Fuel Pathways for Enhancing Energy Security and Sustainability
Speaker: Dr. Chanchal Samanta, BPCL R&D
15:00 - 15:20 Sustainable Polyurethane Technologies
Speaker: Rajesh Debnath, S&P Global
15:20 – 15:30 Q&A Session
16:00 – 16:20 Rebalancing resid FCC product selectivity
Speaker: Leonard Chan, Ketjen + SK Energy
16:20 – 16:40 Accelerating Indigenous Technology Commercialization: Challenges and pathways
Speaker: Deepak Kumar Jha, Ch. Mgr, HPCL-R&D
16:40 – 17:00 Energy-Driven Capacity Expansion in Brownfield Pre-heat Networks
Speaker: Harshita Gupta, Sr. Mgr, EIL
17:00 - 17:20 Decarbonizing Petrochemical Refining through Electrification
Speaker: Claudio Stefano Tarenzi, Director-Process Heating, Zoppas
17:20 – 17:30 Q&A Session
Adarsh Soni & Paul Mason