ONGC adopts Energy Strategy 2040; targets doubling of oil, gas production

State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) has set a target to double oil and gas output from its domestic and overseas fields and expand its refining capacity three-fold alongside diversification into renewables in a new vision document for 2040, its Chairman Shashi Shanker said.

ONGC Energy Strategy 2040 envisions the company as "A diversified energy company with a strong contribution from non E&P business; 3x revenues and about 5-6x market capitalisation," he said.

The firm produced 24.23 million tonnes of crude oil in the 2018-19 fiscal year and 25.81 billion cubic metres (bcm) of natural gas from its domestic fields. Another 10.1 million tonnes of oil and 4.736 bcm of gas were produced from its overseas assets.

It had a turnover of Rs 1,09,654 crore and a net profit of Rs 26,715 crore in the year ended March 31, 2019. As on August 16, it had a market capitalisation of Rs 164,458 crore.

In the company's latest annual report, Shanker said the ONGC board recently approved the business roadmap for the company and its other group entities -- 'ONGC Energy Strategy 2040'.

The 'Energy Strategy 2040' entails ONGC achieving "three times revenue distributed across exploration and production, refining, marketing and other businesses; four times current profit-after-tax (PAT), with 10 per cent contribution from non-oil and gas business; and 5-6 times current market capitalization," he said.

"The strategic roadmap envisions a future-ready organization whose growth is predicated on a few important planks: consolidation of our core upstream business (domestic and international); expansion into value accreting adjacencies in the oil and gas value chain (downstream and petrochemicals) and diversification into renewables (offshore wind) and select new frontier plays through dedicated venture fund," it said.

The document targets cumulative upstream output (local and overseas) almost doubling from current levels with 2 per cent and 5 per cent CAGR in domestic and international operations respectively.

With two 35 million tonnes per annum of oil refining capacity vested in its two subsidiaries -- HPCL and MRPL, ONGC is targeting to raise this capacity to around 90-100 million tonnes. Also, expansion is petrochemicals will be prioritised.

Besides, ONGC plans to make investments in renewables energy sources with a target to create 5-10 gigawatts portfolio with a focus on offshore wind power.

ONGC has been under pressure to reverse the falling output from its aging fields, where natural decline has set in. It is investing heavily to arrest the domestic fall while at the same time aggressively look for assets overseas.

"The strategic roadmap also looks to create long term optionality through investor play (venture fund corpus of about $1 billion) in select frontier themes such as clean energy, artificial intelligence (AI) or reservoir/field services technology," it said.

In upstream oil and gas exploration and production (E&P), priority would be accorded to select difficult plays (high-pressure high temperature, ultra-deepwater) with high-prospectivity and low stretch from current core, development of in-house enhanced oil recovery solutions to maximize legacy production, exploration-focused technology partnerships, dedicated marginal fields unit as well as building decommissioning capabilities.

Internationally, focus shifts to plays with volume in host regimes with a positive government-to-government relationship with India to secure stable energy long-term supplies, the annual report said.

ONGC said there was significant room for deriving operational synergies between HPCL and MRPL through integrated crude sourcing, centralised trading, capability and infrastructure sharing.

Expansion in petchem is based on the robust demand of outlook of 8-9 per cent CAGR for the country as well as ONGC's significant presence in the market through its subsidiaries.