New Delhi, Oct 10 (PTI) IndianOil Institute of Petroleum Management (IIPM), IOC’s apex learning centre at Gurgaon, and IFP Training, a training arm of IFP, France, have entered into an agreement to organize and host public courses on Petroleum Management for executives of the oil and gas firms in India.

The collaboration agreement was signed by Anand Kumar, executive director, IIPM, and by Bernard Lery, deputy chief executive officer and director (international affairs), IFP Training, at Paris recently, an IOC press release said here.

IOC operates 10 of India’s 18 refineries and a 9,000-km network of cross-country pipelines to feed its countrywide marketing network. IFP, France, is a company specialising in research and development, training and information for sustainable development in the fields of energy, transport and environment.

Petroleum refining offers vast opportunities for growth on account of narrowing of the gap between global demand for petroleum products and existing refining capacities.

Setting up of new greenfield refineries is highly capital-intensive and involves a minimum of three to four years’ time. On the other hand, improving efficiencies and augmenting capacities at existing refineries through revamp and de-bottlenecking is a cost-effective proposition in the short-term.

Sug