Sudhir Vasudeva is new CMD of ONGC

The government on Monday appointed Sudhir Vasudeva as the chairman and managing director of state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC).

Vasudeva, 57, is currently director (offshore) in ONGC.

The orders for appointment of Vasudeva, who was selected by government headhunters Public Enterprise Selection Board (PESB) in interviews on October 19 last year, were issued by the oil ministry late this evening, a top government official said.

Born on February 26, 1954, Vasudeva will head the nation's highest profit making firm till his retirement on January 31, 2014.

This follows Prime Minister Manmohan Singh approving of the appointment after Central Vigilance Commission (CVC)

gave final clearance on all complaints received against Vasudeva.

A Chemical Engineer (Gold medalist) and a management graduate, Vasudeva joined ONGC as an executive trainee in 1976. After topping in his batch he steadily worked his way up, with majority of his assignments in offshore oil-fields. He took over as Director (Offshore) of ONGC on February 1, 2009.

ONGC has been headless since January end when R S Sharma retired on attaining superannuation at the age of 60 years.

PESB had on October 19 last year selected Vasudeva, head of offshore oil and gas fields of ONGC, to replace Sharma on January 31.

However, his appointment was delayed due to complaints, some of them on forged letterhead of Members of Parliament (MPs), were made against Vasudeva.