ONGC Apprentice 2026: Check District-Wise Eligibility & Work Centers

District-Wise Eligibility Checker

Every check runs in your browser. Data comes from ONGC Advt. No. ONGC/APPR/1/2026 dated 29.10.2026: seats on pp. 1–12, qualifications on pp. 13–14, Annexure 1 on p. 20.

The “or” in Annexure 1 that most applicants miss

Most summaries of this notification say “apply only from your home district”. That is not what Annexure 1 says. The note at the bottom of page 20 reads:

So there are two independent routes into a work centre:

• Domicile route: you are a resident of an eligible district.
• Qualification route: the ITI, diploma or degree that makes you eligible for the trade was obtained in an eligible district, wherever you live.

This matters most for people who travelled to study. A Bihar resident has no ONGC centre by domicile, but if they finished an ITI in Bokaro district they meet the Bokaro condition. Likewise, someone from Hyderabad who did a B.Tech in Tiruchirappalli meets the Karaikal condition. The checker handles this when you tick “different state or district”.

One caution: the word is essential qualification, meaning the one Para D asks for in your trade. A 10th certificate from a Karaikal school does not make a B.Com applicant from elsewhere eligible for Karaikal. Their B.Com does not come from that district.

How many seats your state can actually reach

We added up the seats at every work centre each state can reach through Annexure 1. The dark bar shows seats open to every district of the state. The light extension shows extra seats open only to the specific districts named in Annexure 1.

What the numbers tell you

• Gujarat alone holds 1,304 of 3,047 seats (about 43%). A resident of Surat, Navsari, Tapi, Dang or Valsad can choose from six centres. That is the widest choice anywhere in India under this notification.
• Assam has 674 seats spread over three centres, and Nazira & Sivasagar on its own (466) is the largest single work centre in the notification, ahead of Ankleshwar (392), Ahmedabad (331) and Mehsana (301).
• Rajasthan's state-wide route has just 5 seats (Jodhpur). For Alwar and Bharatpur, the NCR route to Delhi and OVL Delhi (48 seats) is about ten times bigger.
• In Jharkhand only Bokaro district has a route (33 seats). Ranchi, Dhanbad and every other district have none by domicile.
• Tamil Nadu and Puducherry get 40 seats state-wide (Chennai), but the nine delta and coastal districts on the Karaikal list unlock another 98, more than double.

All 25 work centres with eligible districts and seats

This is Annexure 1 merged with the seat tables on pages 1–12, so you can see the district rule and seat count side by side.

Six Annexure 1 edge cases, and how we read them

Trades offered at only one or two work centres

Your trade can narrow your options more than your district does. For the trades below, only one or two centres in India have seats. If your district is not eligible for those centres, you have no route in that trade, even if your state has other ONGC centres.

Two examples. A Stenographer (English) ITI holder from Assam has no seat at any Assam centre: the only stenography seats are in Mumbai (20) and Ankleshwar (2). A B.Com graduate in Tripura cannot be an Accounts Executive at Agartala, because Agartala has no Accounts Executive seats. They can apply for Executive Finance (Oil & Gas), which needs a B.Com and exists only at Agartala (9 seats).

The district is only the first filter

An eligible district puts you in the pool for a work centre. These conditions from the same notification then decide whether your application stands:

• Age: 18–24 years as on 29.11.2026 (born between 29.11.2002 and 29.11.2008). Upper-limit relaxation: SC/ST +5, OBC-NCL +3, PwBD +10 (SC/ST PwBD +15, OBC PwBD +13).
• 3-year window: you must not have completed three years after passing the qualifying exam as on 29.11.2026. If your marksheet shows no result date, carry a certificate from your institute's principal.
• No earlier apprenticeship under the Apprentices Act, 1961, and no training or job experience of one year or more after the qualification.
• Electrician trade: a Wireman certificate is explicitly not accepted.
• Portal: NAPS trades go through apprenticeshipindia.gov.in and NATS trades through nats.education.gov.in. Each trade's scheme is shown in the checker results.
• Selection is merit-based on marks in the qualifying exam, with the older candidate preferred in a tie. There is no written test.

Stipend you can expect

ONGC pays no TA/DA, boarding or lodging. If you qualify for a centre through the qualification route and live far from it, you pay your own living costs for 12 months out of the stipend. Factor that in before you choose a distant centre over a smaller one near home.

Important dates and official links

• ONGC apprentice portal: ongcapprentices.ongc.co.in
• NAPS (trade apprentices): apprenticeshipindia.gov.in
• NATS (graduate/diploma under BOAT): nats.education.gov.in
• Queries: ongc_skilldev@ongc.co.in

Frequently asked questions

Prepared by the Vacancy Vedika editorial team from the official ONGC notification (Advt. No. ONGC/APPR/1/2026). Seat numbers are tentative and ONGC may change them. Where we interpret the notification (OVL Delhi, post-2022 AP districts, NCR membership), the page says so. ONGC's corrigenda and portal listings take precedence over this page.