Arun Singh wins plaudits on visit to assets
ONGC chairman Arun Singh has faced plenty of criticism but is now winning over employees by visiting the company's neglected and remote assets.
On March 9 (2024), Singh flew from Delhi to Trichy airport in Tamil Nadu and drove to the Karaikal-based Cauvery asset. He took the same route back the next day.
This is the first time since 2009 that an ONGC chairman has visited Karaikal in the union territory of Puducherry. Singh spoke to senior and middle-level managers about maintaining production and decreasing operating costs.
While addressing the workforce, Singh highlighted one exemplary employee: surface manager PN Maran, a GGM and next in line to asset manager Uday Paswan. Maran is known to work over 12-hour shifts on a typical day and is popular among all ranks at the company.
He is so loyal that he even wears a gold ring embossed with the ONGC logo. "I want hundreds of Marans," said Singh to a standing ovation from assembled workers.
Singh also visited the gas collecting station at the Narimanam oilfield, discovered in 1985. On March 10 (2024), Maran held a video call with staff, conveying Singh's message about reducing operating expenditure and outsourcing.
Many agreed that some jobs could be outsourced to vendors to save resources. Days earlier, on March 5 (2024), Singh reached the Nazira-based Assam Asset and addressed a "town hall meeting" where he held a lively discussion with all officer ranks headed by asset manager Rajesh Tiwary.
"Keep increasing production," Singh told employees. "The world is changing, and this will impact crude prices (because of the transition to green fuel), but the problem is lower revenue, not demand; India's demand will be robust for 30-40 years."
Nobody asked any questions. On the same day, Singh visited the Jorhat-based AAAB office and the separate Jorhat asset, where he spoke with newly appointed asset manager Amit Kumar and basin manager Vishal Shastri.
This is the first time Singh has visited these neglected assets since he took charge on December 7 (2022). Absent from the tour, however, was a visit to the Tripura asset, which Singh last visited in February 2024.