The Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) will have a new director to spearhead its new energy, petrochemicals and corporate strategy, as part of a board revamp aimed at breathing fresh life into the state-controlled behemoth.
New director for strategy and corporate affairs has been created, according to an office order from the company.
This will be besides a newly consolidated production division following a board-level reorganization.
ONGC aims to draw synergies from the merger of its onshore and offshore divisions in creating a director for production, which is headed by Pankaj Kumar.
The post of Director (Production) has been created after merging Director (Onshore), who is in charge of all oil and gas fields located on land, and Director (Offshore) who looks after all offshore assets such as the prime Mumbai High fields.
Kumar previously served as ONGC's offshore director.
In addition to the post of director production and director strategy and corporate affairs, the other key directorial positions at ONGC include the exploration, finance, human resources and technical & field services divisions, with all segments reporting to ONGC managing director Arun Kumar Singh.
According to the office order, the new Director (Strategy & Corporate Affairs) will be incharge of joint ventures, downstream petrochemicals, new energy (renewable, hydrogen and carbon capture), corporate strategy, corporate marketing and legal.
"Present corporate strategy and planning (CS&P) group (will) be split into two verticals viz corporate planning and corporate strategy. Corporate planning would continue to report to the chairman whereas the corporate strategy group would report to the director (strategy and corporate affairs)," it said.
The corporate affairs group under CS&P has been renamed as ministry and parliament coordination group and will report to chief corporate planning, it added.
The new position will be filed after government headhunter Public Enterprise Selection Board (PESB) interviews potential candidates.
The revamp is on lines of the Organization Transformation Project (OTP) suggested by consulting firm McKinsey.
Most of the present board-level positions were created in 2001, under a McKinsey OTP plan. McKinsey's OTP was initiated in 2000 by then ONGC chairman and managing director Bikash Bora and implemented despite resistance from within the company, by his successor (late) Subir Raha, who renamed OTP as the Corporate Rejuvenation Campaign (CRC).
In 2001, in line with McKinsey's recommendations, ONGC's Director - Personnel was renamed Director HR, the Director - Operations became Director - Offshore, Director - Technical became Director - Onshore while Director - Drilling became Director - Technology and Oilfield Services.
The Exploration and Finance titles were unchanged.
The second phase of McKinsey's recommendations are being implemented now, sources said, adding the company management has been discussing the board-level revamp with the parent administrative ministry of petroleum and natural gas since mid-2021.
A position of Director (Research and Development) was also suggested but this has not been implemented yet.
