Tune in with Rajarshi Gupta at India Energy Week 2024

Thank you for having me here. Yes, so ONGC Videsh was given the Navratna status by the Government of India in August last year. It immediately opens us on multiple issues which facilitate our business because it gives more power to the board, gives us more autonomy, and also helps us as a brand in the international arena. So as the national oil company of India with a Navratna company and Government of India behind us, we are mandated to acquire assets which give equity oil and gas to India. India is importing 87% of its oil, about 50% of its gas. It is imperative that we look for more and more assets where we can get oil and gas for India. And the Navratna status is a huge value add going forward.

Yes, definitely. So the Navratna status allows us decisions up to 3,000 crores, and beyond that we go to the government. But the government has a set mechanism, so we are looking bigger for bigger assets, bigger acquisitions. The government is asking us to think big, do big, and get more oil and gas equity oil to India as fast as possible. So that is definitely a plus.

Yes. 40x40 is our ambition and milestone that we look forward to. It will be twofold. One is from the existing portfolio. We are present in 18 countries, 15 countries we have assets and three business centers. From this portfolio, with Mozambique and Brazil offshore, Colombia, South Sudan happening, we expect our present production of 11 million tons of oil and gas to go to about 15 to 16 in the next four to five years. So this itself is an organic growth from the portfolio. Today we are the second largest oil and gas E&P company in India, only beyond our parent which produces about 44 to 45 million tons. We produce about 11 million tons. Going forward, from our existing portfolio we would be at 16 to 17 million tons. The other part of the story is acquisitions. We are looking for much bigger acquisitions, bigger scale. With the help of our parent for technology and guarantee support for financials, with the brand India and the Government of India egging us on and mandating us to go forward, we believe we can do much bigger in the acquisition arena. Today being a Navratna of Government of India, I can pick up the phone and talk to any of the CEOs of the oil majors. I am on a first-name basis with them. We can knock open doors and do acquisitions. What we are offering our partners is that in these 32 projects across the world, we have a lot of NOCs, IOCs, oil majors as partners. We are turning it around. This time we are saying that OVL is there in upstream in third countries, but we would like to not be only transactional based. It would be more strategic partnership. Upstream in third countries, midstream and downstream in India, let's do more strategic alliances and collaboration across the value chain, long-term. That is how we move forward from the historic traditional transactional kind of asset-to-asset. We are trying to change that. It doesn't mean we won't do asset-to-asset, but we want to couple this with strategic partnership.

Unfortunately, we don't share live BD projects, but I'll tell you some few things we are doing. The removal of sanctions in Venezuela gives us a very good window. Not only to get our dividends which are stuck there to square it off, but also to take operatorship of our two assets there. Venezuela has the largest reserves on the ground. So if these sanctions go away and we get operatorship and cash flows, then we can invest and increase production very quickly. So that's one area. Colombia, we have got very good exploration success. We are presently at 25,000 barrels with only 75 people on the ground, operated projects, 13 of my own people, 63 local. So there again we are looking to expand our footprint. We have been in Colombia for 16 years now, and we have another company, MCL. Both these two companies we want to increase production. Third part is South Sudan. We are at presently 57,000 barrels, with 25% PI, jointly operated. There we want to also do further exploration. We got a 3-year extension in the exploration license. In the acquisition front, my main focus areas are because I am in three countries in Latin America (Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia), I want to further consolidate there. In Africa, I want to further consolidate, and Middle East. These three areas we have got live BD projects happening with different partners, and we hope within this year we would be announcing something on Venezuela, on Colombia, and also on acquisition.

Yes. We have two projects which are going to development. One is the biggest LNG project in the group, the Mozambique LNG project of 13 million tons. That itself will take a lot of our capex. And the BMS 4 offshore Brazil. These are our two main projects. Plus the assets we told you, Colombia, South Sudan. So this year it is 5,500 crore. Next year it could be at 8,000 crore. We plan to spend on our existing portfolio about 8,000 crore annually over the next 5 years. And this does not include the acquisitions that we may do. So this is how we want to go forward. On a positive note, sir, let's try to end this conversation. It was great talking to you. Thank you for your time.