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ONGC Videsh (OVL) has been operating since 1965 but has comparatively little to show since then.
OVL's average global production for 2023-24 was only 150,000 b/d of oil and 9m cm/d of gas, approximately. Some think ONGC chairman Arun Singh's new job rotation and transfer policy, unveiled last month (April 2024), could change that for the better.
Announced on April 10 (2024) and effective immediately, ONGC's job rotation and transfer policy stresses that only two E1 to E4 level executives will be posted to OVL's marketing section in Delhi. Importantly, no E1 or E4 geology or geophysics executives can henceforth move from ONGC to OVL.
An E1 level, or assistant executive engineer, is the entry point for ONGC officers; E2 is an executive engineer; E3 is a manager; and E4 is a chief manager. A source hopes this will help OVL rediscover its core remit: to win stakes in producing overseas assets instead of wasting time and money on exploration.
"Singh is not an upstream person, but he has correctly read that OVL has strayed from its core competence," he says. "Exploration is a risky business; ONGC should be spending this money in India, not overseas."
He stresses that OVL should be acquiring discovered fields, not exploration acreage outside India. "There's no need for a multitude of geologists and geophysicists in OVL," we hear.
"These people should be working at ONGC." Since 2018, OVL has only acquired stakes in Lower Zakum in the UAE and Vankorneft in Russia.
"These were government-to-government deals, with IndianOil, Oil India, and BharatPetro Resources as OVL's partners," we hear. "Unfortunately, the focus has been on exploration acreage, not discovered fields; OVL has become a travel and tourism company for officers travelling to exploration acreage in exotic locations."
Another source agrees that keeping E1 to E4 geologists and geophysicists out of OVL is an excellent idea. "If needed, they can be hired," he says.
Among the other key reforms is that the tenure of executives posted to OVL in Delhi will not include time in foreign postings. "For foreign postings, E1 to E4 level executives shall be considered, and it will be treated like a non-Delhi ONGC location," says the new policy.