Oil and Natural Gas Corporation
The Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC) is an Indian central public sector undertaking under the ownership of Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Government of India. The company is headquartered in New Delhi. ONGC was founded on 14 August 1956 by the Government of India. It is the largest government-owned-oil and gas explorer and producer in the country and produces around 70 percent of India's domestic production of crude oil and around 84 percent of natural gas. In November 2010, the Government of India conferred the Maharatna status to ONGC. In a survey by the Government of India for fiscal year 2019–20, it was ranked as the largest profit making Central Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) in India. It is ranked 5th among the Top 250 Global Energy Companies by Platts. ONGC is involved in exploring for and exploiting hydrocarbons in 26 sedimentary basins of India, and owns and operates over 11,000 kilometers of pipelines in the country. Its international subsidiary ONGC Videsh currently has projects in 15 countries. ONGC has discovered 7 out of the 8 producing Indian Basins, adding over 7.15 billion tonnes of In-place Oil & Gas volume of hydrocarbons in Indian basins. Against a global decline of production from matured fields, ONGC has maintained production from its brownfields like Mumbai High, with the help of aggressive investments in various IOR (Improved Oil Recovery) and EOR (Enhanced Oil Recovery) schemes. ONGC has many matured fields with a current recovery factor of 25–33%. Its Reserve Replacement Ratio for between 2005 and 2013, has been more than one. During FY 2012–13, ONGC had to share the highest ever under-recovery of 89765.78 billion (an increase of 17889.89 million over the previous financial year) towards the under-recoveries of Oil Marketing Companies (IOC, BPCL and HPCL). On 1 November 2017, the Union Cabinet approved ONGC for acquiring majority 51.11% stake in Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL). On Jan 30th 2018, Oil & Natural Gas Corporation acquired the entire 51.11% stake of HPCL. History Foundation to 1956 Before the independence of India in 1947, the Assam Oil Company in the north-eastern and Attock Oil Company in the north-western part of the undivided India were the only oil-producing companies, with minimal exploration input. The major part of Indian sedimentary basins was deemed to be unfit for the development of oil and gas resources. After independence, the Central Government of India realized the importance of oil and gas for rapid industrial development and its strategic role in defence. Consequently, while framing the Industrial Policy Statement of 1948, the development of the petroleum industry in the country was considered to be of utmost necessity. Until 1955, private oil companies mainly carried out exploration of hydrocarbon resources of India. In Assam, the Assam Oil Company was producing oil at Digboi (discovered in 1889) and Oil India Ltd. (a 50% joint venture between Government of India and Burmah Oil Company) was engaged in developing two newly discovered large fields Naharkatiya and Moraan in Assam. In West Bengal,