By R. Sasankan
Koyali is a place close to Vadodara in the west Indian state of Gujarat.
It is where the flagship refinery of Indian Oil Corporation (IOC),
Gujarat Refinery, is located. With an annual capacity of 13.7 million
tonnes, the refinery is all set to become IOC’s largest with a capacity
of 18 million tonnes, overtaking the latest Paradip refinery in the
state of Odisha.
But the refinery has a curious history – and the principles that
underpin the story are as relevant today as they were in creating the
guideposts for the terms of engagement in the petroleum industry. Very
few people in the country know that the refinery was built by
state-owned upstream company, Oil and Natural Gas Commission, as ONGC
was called back in those days, and not by IOC.
The refinery, established with Soviet assistance, was commissioned in
1965 and had an initial annual capacity of 2 million tonnes. In 1966,
the then petroleum minister, Keshav Dev Malviya, asked ONGC to hand over
the refinery to the newly-created Indian Oil Corporation. ONGC set up
the refinery to process the crude it was producing in Gujarat. Without a
murmur of protest, ONGC obeyed Malviya’s decision.
Malviya had sound logic behind his decision. ONGC, he said, was created
to hunt for oil and gas which the country needed and it ought not to get
involved in activity that would divert its attention from that noble
mission. Refining and marketing would be done by downstream companies
led by IOC. This landmark decision reinforced the vision for which ONGC
was created and guided it through the initial years, leading to a series
of oil and gas discoveries. Back in those days, the oil sector was
steeped in the purity of its purpose and not in perfidy and pelf. It had
not become a milch cow of funds for politicians and its top executives
were picked strictly on merit.
ONGC’s spate of discoveries came to an end by the early 1970s just when
it started to slide into a slime of corruption. Still, it remained
wedded to Malviya’s basic philosophy until around 2000. India’s oil
industry was built on an integrated structure with ONGC and Oil India
acting as Exploration and Production (E&P) companies, Gas Authority
of India Ltd (GAIL) being the mid-stream player, and IOC, BPCL and HPCL
playing the role of downstream refining and marketing entities.
The first deviation started with ONGC taking over MRPL, a joint venture
between HPCL and the Aditya Birla group. Subir Raha, the then ONGC boss,
jumped, at the idea as he could not make a mark in ONGC’s restrictive
environment. Raha had always been known as a very competent executive in
the downstream oil sector and had spent almost his entire professional
life in IOC where his competence was acknowledged. But E&P was a
totally new area for him. He had no demonstrable success to show and all
that he really did was to emasculate the militant and powerful
officers’ association which had incurred his wrath by issuing a press
release alleging corruption involving the country’s top three
bureaucrats including the then anti-corruption head. (The press release
lasted only for three or four hours and no trace of it can be found in
ONGC now).
The fairly long preamble to this column is really the provocation for
this column. I feel that ONGC should be forced to concentrate
exclusively on E&P again. The country cannot afford to waste the
talent that exists in its workforce by straying into areas that are
being managed efficiently by other state-owned players.
It is an acknowledged fact that the government prompted ONGC to acquire
its stake in HPCL to resolve the fiscal deficit conundrum. The cash on
its books could have been used to acquire oil and gas assets overseas
instead of locking it up in HPCL. MRPL is run efficiently. So is the
case with other refineries in the country. Why should the government
burden ONGC with the task of refining crude imported from overseas? What
is the great value addition that ONGC can achieve in this area?
On the exploration front, ONGC has failed to up with any new
commercially viable discoveries over the past five decades. It has of
course notched up a few discoveries of small and marginal fields but in
terms of reserves they do not add up to much. Not for once am I
suggesting this as the only course of action for ONGC to find resources.
As one acknowledged energy expert has said, it is not difficult for
ONGC to raise resources. What it does, however, lack is a clear vision
and strategy.
This is where the political leadership should intervene as Malviya did 55 years ago.
Getting a good price for HPCL and MRPL will be a problem in the
COVID-hit oil industry. But that is only to be expected. Let us not
forget that the sale of BPCL has been stuck for some time.
But ONGC can grab the opportunity to acquire assets overseas as quite a
few are now available at highly discounted prices. ONGC will definitely
find it hard to get an overseas buyer for HPCL and MRPL in the immediate
future. The first hurdle it needs to take is a policy decision at the
company level. The way things work today, this will be hardest to do
unless there is a nudge from the ministry of petroleum headed by
Dharmendra Pradhan. The minister is regarded as a heavy weight within
the political hierarchy and the Prime Minister is not likely to
summarily reject any advice that he proffers.
The best option, therefore, is a petroleum ministry-mediated sale of
these assets to IOC which is desperate to minimise domestic competition.
IOC can offer a reasonably attractive price which ONGC can then use to
acquire overseas assets.
The state-owned enterprise can then make an aggressive foray overseas in
view of the limited hydrocarbon reserves in domestic sedimentary
basins. ONGC cannot afford to keep drilling dry holes to meet annual
targets or let its rigs gather rust. After all, it has one of the
largest rig fleets held by any E&P company. It should look for
prospective areas in geopolitically stable and secure places. It must
focus on E&P alone, whether it is within the country or overseas. It
must return to the original raison d’etre for its existence and
completely abandon the space for refining and marketing of petroleum
products.
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