Indian government wants ONGC to concentrate on finding oil than selling it

The Indian government has asked the country’s top oil producer Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) to concentrate on finding new oil and gas reserves than developing plans to sell them in the retail market.

However, the government has given them the permission to complete already approved refinery projects.

A company official said on the message delivered to the company by the government: “The message was very clear - ONGC should not set up any more petrol pumps.”

ONGC already operates a petrol pump in Mangalore and have plans to setup more at around 45 locations from Dehradun to Ahmedabad.

They even had planned to increase the number to around 1100 by 2008. The company added: “We were told that since fuel retailing is a loss-making proposition, ONGC should focus more on its core competence.”