By Our Staff Reporter
New Delhi, 5 Sep: Pankaj Kumar took charge as Director (Offshore) of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC) on 4 September. As Director (Offshore), Kumar will be responsible for the entire gamut of Offshore Oil & Gas fields contributing around 70 per cent of Crude Oil and 78 per cent of Natural Gas production of the Maharatna ONGC.
Kumar is a thorough Oil & 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 & Planning Group of ONGC and Asset Manager of Cambay and Ahmedabad Asset. Sustainable production enhancement from mature fields of Ahmedabad and Cambay is a testimony to his Asset and Project Management skills. He has been instrumental in bringing numerous technological advances by working with various Assets across the Energy major.
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 lock down. 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 exceptional turnaround of CB-OS/2 Offshore JV block by making it profitable with almost 100 per cent increase in production and delivering complex offshore projects in Panna-Mukta and Tapti block, on time and within allocated budget. He contributed in formulation of ONGC’s Long Term Growth Strategy: Energy Strategy 2040 as Chief, Corporate Strategy & Planning.
Kumar is also the Chairperson of the Society of Petroleum Engineers India Section (SPE) – an international organisation 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 University of Roorkee (now IIT Roorkee) and Master’s degree in Process Engineering from IIT Delhi. He completed the Advance Management Programme at IIM Bengaluru and Leadership Development Programme at IIM Calcutta.