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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
State-owned ONGC, valued at around Rs 3.10 lakh crore, now trails food delivery firm Zomato despite its stakes in subsidiaries and minority investments accounting for over a third of its market capitalisation, indicating India's largest oil and gas producer is potentially undervalued. At the close of trading on Friday, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) had a market value of Rs 3.097 lakh crore, lower than Rs 3.36 lakh crore of Eternal Ltd (formerly known as Zomato), Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (Rs 3.23 lakh crore) and Titan Company (Rs 3.13 lakh crore), according to BSE data. ONGC was India's most valuable company with a market capitalisation of Rs 2.44 lakh crore in 2012, ahead of IT giant TCS and energy major Reliance Industries. While ONGC's market capitalisation rose by just 26 per cent over the past 13 years, other listed firms have seen quantum jumps. Reliance has seen its valuation soar from Rs 2.43 lakh crore in July 2012 to Rs 18.7 lakh crore at Friday's close. Tata ...