Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has appointed Pankaj Kumar as Director (Offshore), with effect from September 4, 2021, the state-run energy company said in a filing on Sunday. “Pankaj Kumar has confirmed that he is not related to other directors of the company. Further, he holds 1,080 equity shares in the capital of the company,” ONGC said in the filing.
As Director (Offshore), Kumar is responsible for the entire gamut of offshore fields under ONGC, contributing around 70 per cent of oil and 78 per cent of natural gas production by the company.
Kumar is a veteran of the oil and natural gas industry, with 34 year of experience across ONGC’s business functions varying from operations management of offshore and onshore fields, well engineering, joint venture management, corporate strategic management and asset management.
During his time at ONGC, he has held key positions as Chief of Corporate Strategy and Planning group of ONGC and Asset Manager of Cambay Asset and Ahmedabad Assets. Kumar has also managed sustainable production enhancement from mature fields of Ahmedabad and Cambay.
During his stint in Joint Venture (JV) Operations Group, Kumar was instrumental in exceptional turnaround of CBOS/2 Offshore JV block by making it profitable with almost 100 per cent increase in production and delivering complex offshore projects in Panna-Mukta and Tapti block, on-time and within allocated budget.
He also served as the Asset Manager of the largest onshore Asset of ONGC at Ahmedabad during the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown. Under his leadership, the facility with 67 installations continued operations round-the-clock and maintained production.
Meanwhile, Norway’s $1.4 trillion wealth fund excluded ONGC from its portfolio due to concerns over the company’s business in South Sudan, the fund said in a statement. The world’s largest sovereign fund also excluded three Israeli firms, Elco, its subsidiary Electra and Ashtrom because of their links to Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Exclusions are based on advice from the fund’s ethics watchdog and holdings are sold before any announcement is made.
