ONGC and GAIL offer huge salaries to graduates

Despite instability in the global oil sector, fresh petroleum graduates are not regretting their choice of future career as they are offered lucrative salaries by state-owned companies ONGC and GAIL.

This report learns ONGC is offering Rs19.2 lakhs/year ($26,800) each to 15 young upstream engineers: four from the Dehradun-based University of Petroleum and Energy Studies and 11 from the Gandhinagar-based Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University (PDPU). "All 15 engineers will be posted to ONGC’s different assets, basins and installations after training," we hear.

GAIL too is willing to spend heavily on recruitment, offering an impressive Rs18.4 lakh/year ($25,600) to MBAs from PDPU’s School of Petroleum Management (SPM). One lucky candidate is 24-year-old Jainam Shah, selected by GAIL on December 6 (2018) to join as an executive trainee in its marketing department in Delhi from May this year (2019).

Shah's starting salary at GAIL surpasses anything he could have hoped for at a privately-owned company like Reliance. "Many students dream of getting jobs at state-owned companies," an industry source tells us.

"Not only do the salaries and perks beat the private sector but a job at a state-owned company is considered secure." Placement season for the School of Petroleum Management's 2017-19 batch began in the last week of November (2018) and still continues.

So far 100 of 120 students have been offered placements at some of India's best-known companies.