The history of the Indian oil industry extends back to the period of the British Raj, at a time when petroleum first became a primary global energy source.
In the year 1909, IBP (Indo Burmah Petroleum) was incorporated in Rangoon to explore oil wells that had been discovered in Burma and Assam.
In order to find the expertise necessary to reach these goals foreign experts from West Germany, Romania, the US, and the Soviet Union were brought in.
India thus adopted the Soviet model of economic development and the state continues to implement five-year plans as part of its drive towards modernity.
[9] This was a trickle-down effect of the culmination of the cold war era; marked by the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, India's main trading partner.
[10] For the ONGC this meant being reorganised into a public limited company (it is now called for Oil and Natural Gas Corporation) and around 2% of government held stocks were sold off.
[11] As a net importer of oil however India faces the problem of meeting the energy demands for its rapidly expanding population and economy and to this the ONGC has pursued drilling rights in Iran and Kazakhstan and has acquired shares in exploration ventures in Indonesia, Libya, Nigeria, and Sudan.
[11] A key issue today is the proposed gas pipeline that will run from Turkmenistan to India through politically unstable Afghanistan and also through Pakistan.