R S Sharma: Roiled oilman

R S Sharma is a man of very few words. Indeed, like many nondescript head of public sector units, the chairman and managing director of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) is quite the antithesis of his predecessor, the rather more flamboyant Subir Raha. So, when the spotlight fell on ONGC in the wake of Vedanta’s surprise acquisition of ONGC’s exploration & production partner Cairn India, it was rather like a deer caught in headlights. The most that newsmen could prise out of Sharma on the game-changing, $9-billion deal: “We are examining the options” and “We will react at the appropriate time.”

The entry of the politically well-connected Anil Agarwal into the domestic oil industry through Cairn India had obviously taken ONGC by surprise. Some even interpreted it as a lost opportunity for the PSU, Cairn India’s 30 per cent partner in the oil-producing Barmer block. But with rumour mills talking of a counter bid by ONGC for a deal viewed by the market as overvalued, Sharma shed his usually unflappable demeanour only long enough to say he was “disgusted” by such speculation. Then again, perhaps it was just angst brought on by a fever he contracted in the midst of the controversy.

Finally, however, the 59-year-old former banker — Sharma spent the first decade of his working life in Union Bank of India’s credit appraisal division — decided to flex his company’s muscles. To be sure, as the country’s most profitable company with net profits last financial year of Rs 16,768 crore, ONGC is certainly sinewy. On Tuesday, ONGC’s company secretary informed the stock exchanges that it would exercise its pre-emptive rights in blocks that it shares with Cairn India. How the latest development plays out remains to be seen, but mediapersons aren’t exactly holding their breath for a statement on the matter from the taciturn Sharma.