ONGC volume rises first time in 7 years

ONGC volume rises first time in 7 years

NEW DELHI: Flagship explorer ONGC may be one of the most valuable companies by market cap. But for long, it has carried the image of a lumbering government entity with a "chalta-hai" (business as usual) attitude towards falling oil production.

Not any more. With the Modi government fixing accountability and oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan keeping a hawk's eye on monthly performance, the country's biggest oil producer has succeeded in reversing the decline by posting positive growth in output for the first time in seven years.

"Globally, production from mature fields shows a decline of 7-8% annually. But we have succeeded in arresting this trend between 1.5% and 2% in western offshore by infusing technology, drilling new wells and taking other measures to enhance production. Simultaneously, early monetization of assets such as cluster-7, D-1 and B-193 helped raise production by a million tonnes," ONGC director (offshore) T K Sengupta said on Wednesday.