ONGC to finalise collaboration with global exploration and production players before FY23-end

I was sharing the stage at the results announcement with directors of our company – each one of them to my left and right is a good candidate to lead the company. In fact, even among the other senior executives present in the room, there are people who have good potential to be directors or even the chairman in the next few years. ONGC has excellent personnel with solid experience, high level of integrity and commitment to organisation. Why should we not give them an opportunity?

There have been delays in appointing senior directors and heads among public sector companies. Your appointment was for six months. Is there a need for better succession planning?

Ideally, we should have finalised a full-fledged CMD at least a month before Shashi Shanker retired. If we knew who the next CMD would be, that person would have been engaged as the next incumbent. That would have been the best scenario. I had to step in because we could not identify a fulltime replacement after Shanker and another director from within was made the interim CMD and then even he retired. Now, I am looking at handing over the position to our current director of exploration. But that is not the way the organisation, which is the largest oil and gas company of the country and gives the best of returns, should be operated, so casually. The government has also understood this. Let’s see what kind of decisions they make. But they are seeing the potential in our personnel. Our minister, secretary, and other senior officials visited offshore sites and they could see the kind of inherent technical edge our people have. ONGC-ians that leave our company occupy top positions in private companies – that is the kind of potential we have. So why should our colleagues not get that opportunity?

You came in when there is so much volatility in the global energy market. What is the opportunity for you and what is your agenda? What is it that you would like to achieve?

When I took over, that was the time when I was actually planning to hang up my boots at the end of my tenure, which is to happen in August…

I would say while I have been a part of this organisation for 37 years, I realised that what I am doing as a CMD is so much more meaningful for the company and much more meaningful for me…

I realised that in a period of eight to nine months, I should make a difference, which would be remembered. The first thing I decided is that we should look at things with an open mind, we should not feel that if the government is conveying something to us, should we go for it or not. They are, after all, not only our major stakeholders, but they see ONGC not just for the financial part but for the future of our economy. If we are able to produce better, if we are able to generate better crude and better in terms of physical performance, we are able to contribute to the economy. So that is one thing.

Secondly, we also had to look at how we can collaborate with the other experts in this area. ONGC may be excellent, we may be the best from our point of view, but there are others from different parts of the globe, who have been in this field for as long, maybe longer.

Third is the use of technology, where we know technology can step in, whether it is in the area of HR or it is in the technical domains. Why should we not free our people, our experts, our domain experts to take on the roles which would ensure that with the use of technology, we are able to get better results.

Five years ago, we had 33,000 employees. Out of those, 5,000 were not even diploma holders. A major chunk was the technical workforce. Today, we have around 26,600 employees who are very committed, technical domain personnel. There are quite a few engineers who have joined us at staff level, not executive cadre, because they see value in being a part of an organisation like ONGC. Today, 50 percent of our workforce is less than 40 years old.

ONGC is looking for collaboration in exploration and production and has even invited bids. By when can we see something fructifying in that space?

The response to the first round was not as big a hit as it could have been, maybe because we were starting out and others were also not aware of what we were heading towards. The second round, which has just taken place, is getting us a much better response because while we have looked at it with all the best of intent, we have also made sure that we look at it from the other’s point of view. We can’t just dictate all our terms. If we are able to develop relations with some service providers, we could potentially collaborate and develop some assets, which would free some of our resources to take on major challenging fields.

It’s a work in progress, it should not take long. I won’t be able to say if the collaborations can happen in two-three months, but I am reasonably hopeful that it should happen this year.

You have set an ambitious target of Rs 10,000 crore investment every year on exploration alone for the next three years. Would this be completely organic?

It is organic. Like I said, we need some collaboration with some of the players like Equinor ASA. These players have experience in similar kinds of fields, they could contribute towards making us understand our subsurface much better. We are ourselves very capable and the capacities we are creating are not only on the manpower front, but also on the technical front.

The rise in crude oil prices and geopolitical tensions are beyond our control. This has highlighted the need to scale up production, but India’s output continues to decline. Where is it that we are slipping and what can be done?

I will not talk about slipping anywhere. Two years of the COVID pandemic were bad. We have these old, aging fields from which we try to draw the best and then we keep adding acreages and further production plans. It’s a cycle. So while we are going ahead with that, some of the plans which were to take off in the last two years could not because of issues that were faced in different offshore locations. That has directly impacted the levels of production. Now is the time when these things are happening. In fact, our jack-up rig Sagar Samrat came back and is ready to be commissioned. Normally, we are not able to commission major projects in the monsoon but as soon as it is over, it will be commissioned and will add to our numbers. Around 7,500 barrels per day will be added – that’s a huge amount. We just have to wait and watch for a couple of more months.

What is the best-case scenario for ONGC? What kind of production growth can we see and over what timelines?

By the end of the year, we will be able to talk about it with more confidence because these projects, like a KG 98/2, are likely to be completed by May ’23. In fact, in gas fields there, three wells have already been drilled and we are expecting good production.

The eastern coast, which was till now just a place where we were investing, is now going to get us results. I am sure we will be getting good news on the western coast too; it remains our karmabhoomi for now.

The government’s stance on the Russia-Ukraine situation, especially with respect to energy, is very clear. ONGC also has equity investments in Russia. What is the mandate for you? Is this an opportunity or a challenge?

There has been no mandate as such given to ONGC. We have been discussing our apprehensions and our opportunities that we see in that area to decide what we bid for or not. ONGC Videsh Ltd. has a presence in 18 domains in different countries. Each of these would have some unique geopolitical issues; the team is equipped to deal with them. Despite those issues, they are continuing to make progress in the projects we have taken up in those domains.

The Russian situation is definitely a little challenging. We are looking at opportunities there, we are waiting and watching. There’s a lot of talk happening, but very little substantive information is coming out. The Western countries are talking about withdrawing but we are not seeing much action there on that front.

What is your assessment of the sanctions? Given Europe’s dependence on Russia for energy, will they be able to go ahead with it?

We don’t know what is going on in their minds. But when we are making plans, we are very clear that if we are able to get resources for our country or we are able to invest for the sake of energy efficiency or energy security of our nation, we would like to. If we can go to other economies, which are geopolitically compromised, why not there? We are looking at the situation and we are ready to make decisions if we feel that it is going to be of help to the company as well as the country.

You are the first woman to head ONGC. It is rare to have women in the top positions in energy companies globally. When you started working, there were fewer women in this sector. Did you have any role models?

I grew up with three brothers. I never thought of gender when I was setting my targets. I was only looking at the role and whether it is exciting enough. So when I applied for and became the first director-HR, I just thought that I worked for it and I am here by virtue of my competence. And why not? When this responsibility of being the CMD of ONGC came my way, I told myself that I have been with the team and at the board. I can take this on as well.

ONGC is among the few companies that has women as head of the company and as head of finance…

And it’s not like how some private players appoint women because it needs to be done at the board level. We had 8 percent women in ONGC as of May 1. The number has been growing over the last five-seven years. If we recruit 500 executives, 100 of them are girls. We have 161 girls working in the fields – they are working offshore and onshore. Of course, it motivates them to see women in the top roles.