By Our Staff Reporter
Dehradun, 19 Apr: Pomila Jaspal took over as Director (Finance) of ONGC, today. Prior to this, Jaspal served as Director (Finance) in Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL) – Schedule ‘A’ CPSE and subsidiary of ONGC, since October 2019. She has also served as Director on the Board of ONGC Mangalore Petrochemicals Limited (OMPL), Petronet Mangalore Hassan Bangalore Limited (PMHBL) and ONGC Petro additions Limited (OPaL).
Jaspal is a fellow member and gold medalist of the Institute of Cost Accountants of India. She is a recipient of the Late Mrs Dhanpati Goel Gold Medal from the Institute. She has obtained a degree in BCom (Hons) from MCM DAV College, Chandigarh, and MCom from Punjab University.
She has 36 years of experience across varied segments of the oil & gas industry, encompassing operating, regulatory and policy aspects of upstream and downstream industry. She was instrumental in the merger of OMPL with MRPL, paving the way for synergy and integration benefits for the ONGC Group. As Director (Finance) of MRPL, she focused on the restructuring of the borrowing portfolios leading to a lower effective rate of interest. She steered MRPL’s maiden Non-Convertible Debenture (NCD) issue worth Rs 3,000 crore and also ventured into the commercial paper market at the opportune time that could generate funds at very competitive rates. In addition, she also facilitated the settlement of many issues on merit under Sabka Vishwas Scheme for Indirect Tax, as well as under Vivad Se Vishwas Scheme for Direct Tax.
She joined ONGC in 1985 as Finance & Accounts Officer and rose to the position of Executive Director, Chief Corporate Finance, and handled varied assignments including corporate finance functions such as Direct tax, Indirect tax, Investor relations, Corporate Budget & Project Appraisal, etc. During her tenure in ONGC, she handled responsibilities in diversified roles at Corporate Office, Dehradun, Mumbai, Assam and ONGC Videsh. She was the first woman to become Head, Finance, of Assam Asset and handled this challenging assignment for four years. She also has the rich exposure of working in ONGC Videsh Ltd, where she handled finance of various assets like Sakhalin, South Sudan, Kazakhstan, and Colombia, etc., and steered smooth buyout of Azerbaijan Asset.
Jaspal also worked at the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) – the regulatory arm of Ministry of P&NG, in its formative years and was instrumental in developing the model Production Sharing Contracts (PSC), which resulted in the signing and awarding of blocks to various private and JV companies. She also steered international arbitrations involving huge government stakes. She Jaspal also worked in the Contract Cell of MoPNG, with exposure to different areas of gas pricing, gas utilisation policy, and formulation of policies for smooth implementation of PSCs and monitoring the royalty and profit to GoI.