India's largest coal handling agency - Mjunction

CORPORATEONGC ranked world’s top oil companyCoal Insights BureauState-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC)Limited has been ranked the world's top oil and gasexploration and production (E&P) firm by global energyresearch agency Platts.ONGC was last year placed at the third position in the pureE&P category, behind Encana of Canada and China NationalOffshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) of China. CNOOC wasranked second in the list for 2010."In the pure E&P category, ONGC has achieved thedistinction of numero uno ranking not only in Asia, but evenon a global scale," Platts said in a statement.In the overall Platts Top 250 Global Energy CompanyRankings that rated world's leading oil and gas, power andcoal firms, ONGC climbed to the 18th slot from 26th positionin 2009 rankings."This is the highest ever ranking of ONGC in the list ofPlatts Top 250, ahead of global leaders like Cooco Phillips,Statoil, CNOOC, BG and others," ONGC said. Under thestewardship of R.S. Sharma, ONGC has steadily improved itsfortunes during the past four years.With revenues of $22 billion, ONGC reported a profit of$4.24 billion in 2009-10, which forms the basis for the Plattsrankings. It had assets worth $33.37 billion.Under Sharma, ONGC has been able to arrest declinein output from its ageing fields through innovative use oftechnology and has set the floor for reversing the decliningtrend of the past by fast-track development of new andmarginal fields.Sharma will retire from the positions of chairman andmanaging director of ONGC on January 31, 2011, but theinitiatives taken under him will see the company's oilproduction rise to 28 million tons (mt) in 2013-14, from thecurrent llevel of over 25 mt.Natural gas production is slated to rise to over 100 millionstandard cubic meters per day (mmscmd) by 2014-15, from thecurrent 58.86 mmscmd. Platts also ranked ONGC as the fastestgrowing company in Asia in the E&P sector.The global list headed by ExxonMobil Corp of the US,had billionaire Mukesh Ambani-run Reliance Industriesat the 13th position, Platts said. Reliance had assets worth$55.94 billion and revenues of $43.63 billion. It had a profitof $5.24 billion.Embattled British energy giant BP Plc was placed second,ahead of Gazprom OAO of Russia, Petrobras Brasileiro ofBrazil, Total SA of France, E.On AG of Germany, PetrochinaCo, China Petroleum, Chevron Corp of US and Royal DutchShell.Meanwhile, the government formally conferred the'Maharatna' status to flagship explorer ONGC on November16. The move will substantially enhance their autonomy andoperational flexibility as well as act as a booster when thecompany shortly approaches the market for a further stakesale.Conferring the Maharatna certificates, heavy industryminister, Vilasrao Deshmukh, stressed the need for a robustpublic sector and specially mentioned ONGC as an examplefor others to emulate. "Best practices of ONGC and ONGCVidesh are worth emulating by others," he remarked, whilehanding over the certificates to company chiefs.The Maharatna status will allow these entities to decide oninvestments up to `5000 crore in one project. The Maharatnastatus is granted to listed Navaratna companies with anaverage annual turnover of more than `25,000 crore, net profitof `5000 crore and net worth of `15,000 crore during the pastthree years.Analysts said the enhanced autonomy would boostinvestor sentiment. The analysts also said greater operationalflexibility will allow these companies to become world-classand compete in the international arena.The state-run oil major is likely to divest 5 percent of itsequity stake by March 2011 through a follow-on public offer(FPO), according to top officials.The company is doing a valuation of underlying reserves.Post-disinvestment, the government's holding in the country'sfirst 'Maharatna' company will be 69.14 percent from thepresent 74.14 percent.The company would not raise fresh equity, officialssaid, as its joint venture partners were raising debt from themarket, so that there is no need for the company to go to themarket.The company offered bonus issue in the ratio of 1:2, thatis, one share for every two shares, in 2006 and gave 5 percentdiscount when it went public in 2004 to retail investors andemployees.COAL INSIGHTS 51 November 2010