ONGC investing Rs 83,000 cr in 25 projects: Shashi Shanker

New Delhi: Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd. chairman and managing director Shashi Shanker has announced that the crude oil giant is investing around Rs 83,000 crore in 25 major projects to boost oil and gas production, which has stagnated over last years. "15 of these projects currently under execution will directly contribute to oil and gas production," Shanker said while addressing ONGC employees on the 73rd Independence Day on August 15, 2019.

"The cumulative oil and gas gain from these projects is expected to be over 180 million tonnes of oil and oil equivalent gas in their life cycle," he further added. India's biggest oil and gas PSU produced 24.23 million tonnes of crude oil in 2018-19 and 25.81 billion cubic metres of natural gas from its domestic fields. Another 10.1 million tonnes of oil and 4.736 billion cubic metres of gas was produced from its overseas assets. ONGC envisages natural gas output of over 32 billion cubic metres by FY24, the CMD said. The directors of ONGC were also present on the occasion.

Pitching for an transformative approach to the energy business, Shanker talked about the ambitious "Energy Strategy 2040" that will help ONGC achieve "three times revenue distributed across exploration and production, refining, marketing, and other businesses; four times current profit-after-tax, with 10 percent contribution from non-oil and gas business; and five-six times current market capitalisation".

Highest-ever revenue

Speaking on the company's business performance, Shanker said the company earned the highest ever revenue of Rs 1,09,655 crore in 2018-19, an increase of 29 percent over the previous fiscal. It also logged a record net profit of Rs 26,716 crore, an increase of 34 percent. ONGC Videsh Ltd, the firm's overseas investment arm, recorded the highest ever production of 14.83 million tonnes of oil and oil equivalent gas during FY19. In downstream refining, its subsidiary MRPL achieved highest ever throughput of 16.43 million tonnes with a capacity utilisation of 109.5 percent.

HPCL soaring high

ONGC's newly acquired subsidiary, HPCL has also achieved the highest ever sales volume of 38.7 million tonnes with a domestic sales growth of 4.7 percent over historical high, he said. "The Petroleum & Natural Gas Ministry has announced several enabling policies which, I am sure shall bring in positive changes in India's oil and gas sector," he said. Supporting PM Modi's call for a domestic solar revolution, ONGC had launched a nation-wide "Solar Chulha Challenge". Through this initiative and with the help of IIT-Mumbai, Shanker said 86 Solar PV cooking stoves were installed at Bacha and Jamthi in Betul district of Madhya Pradesh. The entire village of 74 households has been benefited at Bacha village.