Sibal, others in fray for ONGC top job

At least a dozen candidates including V K Sibal, the upstream oil regulator, are in the race for the top job at India's most valuable company, Oil and Natural Gas Corp.

Sibal, director general of the directorate general of hydrocarbons, leads the list of contenders which also includes ONGC's acting chairman and managing director R S Sharma, oil ministry sources said.

The post fell vacant after the government refused Subir Raha an extension at the helm of the company after his first five-year term expired in May.

Besides Sharma, who holds the finance portfolio at the ONGC board, all the functional directors of ONGC namely director (human resources) A K Balyan, director (exploration) D K Pande, diretor (offshore) N K Mittra and director (onshore) A K Hazarika have applied for the post of chairman and managing director.

Two directors from state-run gas utility GAIL (India) Ltd - U D Choubey, director (marketing) and M R Hingikar, director (human resources) have also applied. Besides, three non-directors from the company are also in fray.

A chief executive of Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd's subsidiary is also in race, sources said adding R S Butola, managing director of ONGC Videsh Ltd, the overseas arm of ONGC, had not applied for the job till Tuesday evening.

Sources said today was the last date for application. The Public Enterprise Selection Board is likely to hold interviews for the post in a month's time. The PSEB will name the number one and number two candidates and send its recommendations to the government, who after getting clearance for the same from different agencies would name Raha's successor in three-months time.

The eligibility for ONGC top job is a minimum age of 45 years and not more than 58 years for internal candidates and not more than 57 years for others. The age of superannuation is 60 years.

"The applicant should be a graduate with good academic record. . . persons preferably with technical/MBA qualifications and having experience in management and familiarity with finance, marketing/production will have added advantage," a PSEB notice inviting applications for the post of chairman and managing director in ONGC said.

Officers of the level of additional secretary to the Government of India or on equivalent scale of pay on the date of vacancy with adequate experience in the relevant field are also eligible for post.