Hiking output, pruning bills top tasks: Sharma

R S Sharma, chairman, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has set new targets including reversing the decline in production from ageing fields and cutting rising expenditure during his tenure that ends in 2011.

In a message to more than 34,000 employees after being appointed as chairman and managing director, Sharma listed employee attrition and the rising payout on kerosene and LPG subsidy also as areas of concern.

"The concern areas are decline in production from ageing fields, rising exploration and production expenditure, constraints of oil field services, high subsidy payouts, under-recoveries in gas business and employee attrition," he wrote.

Besides finding new reserves of oil and gas, Sharma has promised to tackle issues like morale and motivation of employees and opening promotional avenues to arrest brain drain from the company.

Sharma, who was director (finance) when the government refused extension of service to Subir Raha in May 2006, has been the acting head of the company for the last 13 months. Though he was selected for the top job by the government's head-hunting panel PESB in August, the Prime Minister's Office refused his confirmation in February.

Even though the selection process of PESB invited professionals from private firms to apply, the PMO wanted the invitation to be more explicit. Sharma was again selected and his appointed confirmed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on July 2.