India’s state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC), the biggest oil and gas producer in the country, plans to launch a trading unit for crude and refined petroleum products for its subsidiaries and affiliates, according to a senior executive.
ONGC’s idea to create a trading unit is still at an early stage, and “an internal group has been formed to discuss and look into the modalities, including legal issues,” Rajarshi Gupta, managing director at ONGC Videsh, said on Tuesday, as carried by Reuters.
“We control about 100 million tonnes of oil within the group,” Gupta told the audience at an energy industry event in New Delhi.
ONGC Videsh is the overseas unit of ONGC, developing acreages outside India, including exploration, development, and production of oil and gas. ONGC Videsh says it is the second largest petroleum company of India, next only to its parent ONGC.
ONGC’s annual crude oil production is about 42 million tons. The corporation’s refining subsidiaries Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) and Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited (MRPL) combined import about 45-50 million tons of oil per year.
ONGC booked a lower net profit for the April-June quarter from a year earlier on the back of falling oil prices and basically flat production.
Oil prices slumped in April to June by about 10% amid high volatility due to the U.S. tariff policies and the Israel-Iran war.
ONGC’s crude realizations slumped to $67.87 per barrel from $80.64 per barrel in April-June 2024. As a result, net profit fell to $917 million (80.24 billion Indian rupees) for the first quarter of its 2025/2026 fiscal year, down by 10% compared to the same period of the previous financial year.
ONGC, which produces some 70% of India’s crude oil and 84% of its natural gas, has recently started a campaign to boost oil and gas production through well optimization and accelerating the start of production at recently made discoveries.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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