New Delhi: Pankaj Kumar has assumed the charge as Director-Offshore, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC), India’s leading oil and natural gas exploration entity in public sector. As Director-Offshore, Kumar will be responsible for the entire gamut of offshore oil and gas fields, contributing around 70 percent of crude oil and 78 percent of natural gas production of ONGC, a ‘Maharatna’ under the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.
According to an official statement, Kumar is a thorough oil and gas industry professional with more than 34 years 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. He has held key positions as Chief of Corporate Strategy and Planning group of ONGC and Asset Manager of Cambay and Ahmedabad Asset.
During his recent tenure as Asset Manager of one of the largest onshore assets of ONGC at Ahmedabad, the country faced the worst ever pandemic and lockdown. Under his dynamic leadership, during these severe lock-conditions, the asset with 67 installations continued production round-the-clock.
He is known for his visionary approach and dynamic decision-making. During his stint in Joint Venture (JV) Operations Group, Kumar was instrumental in the exceptional turnaround of CB-OS/2 offshore JV block by making it profitable with almost 100 percent increase in production and delivering complex offshore projects in Panna-Mukta and Tapti block, on time and within allocated budget.
Kumar is also the chairperson of Society of Petroleum Engineers India Section (SPE), an international organization formed to collect, disseminate and exchange technical knowledge concerning the exploration, development and production of oil and gas resources and related technologies for the public benefit.
He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Roorkee, now IIT Roorkee and Master’s degree in Process Engineering from IIT Delhi. He completed Advance Management Program at IIM Bengaluru and Leadership Development Program at IIM Calcutta. /BI/
