IloveIndia

IloveIndia
ONGC is India's leading oil & gas exploration company. Here is a brief profile and history of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited Profile.

ONGC India

ONGC (Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited) is India's leading oil & gas exploration company. ONGC has produced more than 600 million metric tonnes of crude oil and supplied more than 200 billion cubic metres of gas since its inception. Today, ONGC is India's highest profit making corporate. It has a share of 77 percent in India's crude oil production and 81 per cent in India's natural gas production.

The origins of ONGC can be traced to the Industrial Policy Statement of 1948, which called for the development of petroleum industry in India. Until 1955, private oil companies such as Assam Oil Company at Digboi, Oil India Ltd (a 50% joint venture between Government of India and Burmah Oil Company) at Naharkatiya and Moran in Assam, and Indo-Stanvac Petroleum project (a joint venture between Government of India and Standard Vacuum Oil Company of USA) at West Bengal, were engaged in exploration work. The vast sedimentary tract in other parts of India and adjoining offshore were largely unexplored. In 1955, Government of India decided to develop the oil and natural gas resources in the various regions of the country as part of the Public Sector development. To achieve this objective an Oil and Natural Gas Directorate was set up in1955, as a subordinate office under the then Ministry of Natural Resources and Scientific Research.

The Industrial Policy Resolution of 1956 placed mineral oil industry among the schedule 'A' industries. In August 1956, to ensure efficient functioning of the Oil and Natural Gas Directorate, the Directorate was raised to the status of a commission with enhanced powers. In October 1959, the Commission was converted into a statutory body by an act of the Indian Parliament, which enhanced powers of the commission further. In 1960s, ONGC found new resources in Assam and established new oil province in Cambay basin (Gujarat). In early 1970s went offshore and discovered a giant oil field in the form of Bombay High. After liberalization in 1991, ONGC was re-organized as a limited Company under the Company's Act, 1956 in February 1994. Today, ONGC has grown into a full-fledged horizontally integrated petroleum company. Recently, ONGC has made six new discoveries, at Vasai West (oil and gas) in Western Offshore, GS-49 (gas) and GS-KW (oil and gas) in Krishna-Godavari Offshore, Chinnewala Tibba (gas) in Rajasthan, and Laipling-gaon (oil and gas) and Banamali (oil), both in Assam.

ONGC has a fully owned subsidiary, ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL) that looks for exploration opportunities in other parts of the world. OVL is pursuing exploration of oil and gas in Russia, Iran, Iraq, Libya Myanmar and other countries. ONGC has also acquired 72% stake in MRPL with full management control of the 9.69 tonne, state-of-the-art refinery.

Major Achievements of ONGC
Note: The above information was last updated on 21-07-2007