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Arun Kumar Singh has been granted a rare one-year extension as chairman of ONGC, in signs that the government may have wanted continuity to consolidate the gains India's top oil and gas producer has made under his leadership. Singh, 63, will continue as the chairman of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) till December 6, 2026, according to an official order that cited a decision made by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In 2022, he became the first near-60 executive ever to be appointed chairman of a blue-chip PSU. Now, in another unprecedented move, his tenure will run until age 64. Industry sources said Singh brought the much needed stability in management at ONGC, helping reverse the decade-long decline in production of crude oil, which is feedstock for making petrol and diesel, and natural gas, which is used to produce power, make fertilizer, turned into CNG to run automobiles and fire household kitchens. Under him, ONGC stitch
State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has reported an 18 per cent fall in its second-quarter net profit due to lower oil prices. The company's net profit stood at Rs 9,848 crore in July-September -- the second quarter of 2025-26 financial year -- compared to Rs 11,984 crore earnings in the same period a year back, ONGC said in a statement. The fall in profit of India's biggest oil explorer was primarily a decline in crude oil prices -- from USD 78.33 per barrel in Q2 of FY25 to USD 67.34 in the current fiscal. The crude oil that ONGC pumps from the ground and from beneath the seabed is sold to refineries, which process it into fuels like petrol and diesel. Price of natural gas, which is used to generate electricity, produce fertilizer, power automobiles as CNG and used in household kitchens as cooking fuel, rose 3.8 per cent to USD 6.75 per million British thermal unit for legacy wells. The rate for gas from new wells -- which receives a premium to offset additional c