Puri visits Puri with Oil India
Mixing business with pleasure, oil minister Hardeep Singh Puri will visit Bhubaneshwar and Puri cities in Odisha this month (November) to review Oil India's performance.
On November 16 (2023), oil minister Puri will have a review meeting with Oil India in Odisha's capital, Bhubaneshwar. "We will be discussing Oil India's internal strategic policy," says a source.
Odisha is a significant destination for Oil India. Not only is it the home state of chairman Ranjit Rath, but it's also the location of five Oil India blocks won under OALP rounds.
Puri is also expected to visit the city that carries his name (Puri) on November 17 (2023), not just for its beautiful beaches and temple to the Hindu deity Lord Jagannath (who lends his name to the English word 'juggernaut) but also possibly to visit Oil India exploration wells nearby. Oil India is already seen positively by Puri, but company officials hope the review meeting and visit will bolster government support for the company's future efforts.
A source adds Oil India plans to expand further after acquiring Numaligarh Refinery in 2021. Oil secretary Pankaj Jain and other ministry and DGH officials will accompany Puri on his Odisha odyssey.
From Oil India, the delegates will likely include chairman Rath, director finance Harish Madhav, director operations Pankaj Kumar Goswami, director exploration Manas Kumar Sharma, director human resources Ashok Das and oil ministry-nominated director Vinod Seshan. Likely to be on the agenda is an 80% drop in the company's profit after tax in its second quarter results filed on November 8 (2023) because of a service tax dispute with the Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Rajasthan governments, for which Oil India set aside Rs2363cr ($285m).