India’s two biggest oil companies – Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), the country’s largest crude oil refiner, and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), the largest oil producer – have together employed over 80 officials who have quit private sector oil companies for “safer” jobs in the government-owned firms over the last couple of months.
Over 50 new officials have joined IOC and around 30 have joined ONGC. Most of the people who have joined ONGC are former employees of India’s largest exploration company.
“Most of those who joined us in the last couple of months have come from private sector companies such as Reliance Industries and Essar Oil,” a top IOC official confirmed. “In times of crisis, public sector companies are seen as a safe bet,” he added.
An Essar Oil spokesperson however said that “over 100 persons have joined us from various oil public sector companies in recent times with a majority being from IOC.”
Reliance Industries, the countrys’s largest company by market capitalisation declined to comment.
Some of the over 30 employees who have rejoined ONGC have returned from national oil companies in West Asia, where falling oil prices are putting pressure on bottom lines, an ONGC official said.
This contrasts starkly with the 2004-2007 period when state-owned oil, power and steel companies saw an exodus of employees to higher-paying private sector companies. A financial slowdown this year has resulted in private sector companies slowing down and postponing projects.
“The slowdown has made many people who went to the private sector jittery. You can't sit in an office and not have much to do,” said an official who recently rejoined ONGC after leaving for a private sector company around a year ago.
