GAIL Chairman Sandeep Gupta Wild Card for Indian Oil Corporation

New Delhi: Nearly a dozen candidates on Sunday appeared for an interview before the selection committee that will select the new chairman of Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), the country’s largest oil company, sources said.

While 10 of the nearly 60 candidates who applied have been called for interviews, GAIL chairman and managing director Sandeep Gupta is considered an unknown quantity.

Gupta did not apply but was called for an interview, three sources with knowledge of the matter said.

“They invited 10 candidates who applied. Gupta was the 11th person to be interviewed,” one of them said.

Gupta, 58, served as director (finance) at IOC before being appointed managing director of gas utility GAIL in October 2022.

Among those interviewed on Sunday were two directors of the IOC executive board – Satish Kumar Vaduguri (chief marketing officer) and Arvind Kumar (chief refinery officer).

Five executive directors of the company were also questioned.

Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) chief marketing officer Sukhmal Kumar Jain and company director (refineries) S. Khanna were also questioned, sources said. Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) chief marketing officer Amit Garg was also present for questioning.

The commission is looking for a successor to Shrikant Madhav Vaidya, whose one-year extension beyond the retirement age of 60 ends on August 31. The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas in June had approached engineers, chartered accountants and cost accountants with postgraduate degrees in management from leading institutions and at least five years of experience in top management positions in the IOC.

The age limit for eligibility was set at not more than 58 years for internal candidates and 57 years for external candidates, and the retirement age was 60. However, this could be relaxed for deserving candidates.

This option was used in the case of Gupta, who has less than two years left before he retires in February 2026, and Satish Kumar Vaduguri, who has just 11 months of service left.

Sources said Gupta could be the panel’s choice.

“The entire process is being carried out in complete secrecy,” said one of the sources quoted above.

Vaidya, who took over as the chairman of India’s largest oil company on July 1, 2020, was scheduled to retire on August 31, 2023, when he reached the retirement age of 60. However, he was in a rare move of “re-employment on contract basis” for a year “after the date of retirement i.e. September 1, 2023 to August 31, 2024”, as per an official order dated August 4, 2023.

A three-member search and selection committee was then constituted to select the person who will take over as the IOC president after August 31, 2024. The committee is headed by the government’s Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB) chairman and includes petroleum secretary and former chairman of Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) MK Surana.

However, the Commission was unable to make significant progress on the issue of age eligibility.

Sources said the ministry had initially proposed that anyone below 61 years of age could be considered for the post, making Vaidya eligible for the post.

However, this proposal did not gain recognition in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).

The government then returned to the old system of appointing heads of state-owned enterprises, setting the retirement age at 60.

Before Vaidya, no Maharatna PSU chairman had been given an extension beyond 60 years in recent years. In fact, the government had denied Ranjan Kumar Mohapatra an eight-month extension as director (human resources) of the IOC till he reached the age of superannuation.

The petroleum ministry had recommended extending Vaidya’s service after the PESB in May last year failed to make any recommendations for the next IOC president after interviewing 10 candidates, including Arvind Kumar, who was then managing director of Chennai Petroleum Corporation Ltd (CPCL).

The IOC has said for the second time in recent months that the PESB failed to find a suitable candidate for a top position at a leading oil company, with the duties being given to retired employees.

On June 3, 2021, the PESB failed to find anyone suitable for the post of ONGC chief out of nine candidates, including two serving IAS officers.

The ministry then set up a search and selection committee and appointed Arun Kumar Singh, who retired from BPCL after turning 60, as ONGC chief. Singh was ineligible to apply for the post, but the eligibility rules were changed to allow applications from those above 60 years of age to be considered.

A similar, but greater relaxation of the age requirements (allowing people up to 61 years of age to be taken into consideration) was demanded in the case of the IOC.

The current regulations on filling positions on the boards of public sector enterprises allow for the consideration of applications from persons employed by the enterprise who have at least two years left to retirement, and in the case of external candidates – three years.

IOC refines crude oil into products such as gasoline, diesel, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and aviation turbine fuels. It also produces petrochemicals and retails CNG.

Apart from serving as the core New Delhi, Aug 11 (PTI) Around a dozen candidates on Sunday appeared for an interview before the selection committee that is expected to select the new chairman of Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), the country’s largest oil company, sources said.

While 10 of the nearly 60 candidates who applied have been called for interviews, GAIL chairman and managing director Sandeep Gupta is considered an unknown quantity.

Gupta did not apply but was called for an interview, three sources with knowledge of the matter said.

“They invited 10 candidates who applied. Gupta was the 11th person to be interviewed,” one of them said.

Gupta, 58, served as director (finance) at IOC before being appointed managing director of gas utility GAIL in October 2022.

Among those interviewed on Sunday were two directors of the IOC executive board – Satish Kumar Vaduguri (chief marketing officer) and Arvind Kumar (chief refinery officer).

Five executive directors of the company were also questioned.

Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) chief marketing officer Sukhmal Kumar Jain and company director (refineries) S. Khanna were also questioned, sources said. Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) chief marketing officer Amit Garg was also present for questioning.

The commission is looking for a successor to Shrikant Madhav Vaidya, whose one-year extension beyond the retirement age of 60 ends on August 31. The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas in June had approached engineers, chartered accountants and cost accountants with postgraduate degrees in management from leading institutions and at least five years of experience in top management positions in the IOC.

The age limit for eligibility was set at not more than 58 years for internal candidates and 57 years for external candidates, and the retirement age was 60. However, this could be relaxed for deserving candidates.

This option was used in the case of Gupta, who has less than two years left before he retires in February 2026, and Satish Kumar Vaduguri, who has just 11 months of service left.

Sources said Gupta could be the panel’s choice.

“The entire process is being carried out in complete secrecy,” said one of the sources quoted above.

Vaidya, who took over as the chairman of India’s largest oil company on July 1, 2020, was scheduled to retire on August 31, 2023, when he reached the retirement age of 60. However, he was in a rare move of “re-employment on contract basis” for a year “after the date of retirement i.e. September 1, 2023 to August 31, 2024”, as per an official order dated August 4, 2023.

A three-member search and selection committee was then constituted to select the person who will take over as the IOC president after August 31, 2024. The committee is headed by the government’s Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB) chairman and includes petroleum secretary and former chairman of Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) MK Surana.

However, the Commission was unable to make significant progress on the issue of age eligibility.

Sources said the ministry had initially proposed that anyone below 61 years of age could be considered for the post, making Vaidya eligible for the post.

However, this proposal did not gain recognition in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).

The government then returned to the old system of appointing heads of state-owned enterprises, setting the retirement age at 60.

Before Vaidya, no Maharatna PSU chairman had been given an extension beyond 60 years in recent years. In fact, the government had denied Ranjan Kumar Mohapatra an eight-month extension as director (human resources) of the IOC till he reached the age of superannuation.

The petroleum ministry had recommended extending Vaidya’s service after the PESB in May last year failed to make any recommendations for the next IOC president after interviewing 10 candidates, including Arvind Kumar, who was then managing director of Chennai Petroleum Corporation Ltd (CPCL).

The IOC has said for the second time in recent months that the PESB failed to find a suitable candidate for a top position at a leading oil company, with the duties being given to retired employees.

On June 3, 2021, the PESB failed to find anyone suitable for the post of ONGC chief out of nine candidates, including two serving IAS officers.

The ministry then set up a search and selection committee and appointed Arun Kumar Singh, who retired from BPCL after turning 60, as ONGC chief. Singh was ineligible to apply for the post, but the eligibility rules were changed to allow applications from those above 60 years of age to be considered.

A similar, but greater relaxation of the age requirements (allowing people up to 61 years of age to be taken into consideration) was demanded in the case of the IOC.

The current regulations on filling positions on the boards of public sector enterprises allow for the consideration of applications from persons employed by the enterprise who have at least two years left to retirement, and in the case of external candidates – three years.

IOC refines crude oil into products such as gasoline, diesel, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and aviation turbine fuels. It also produces petrochemicals and retails CNG.

In addition to being the backbone of India’s fuel supply, IOC is also working on India’s energy transformation – shifting energy production and consumption systems from fossil fuel-based systems (including oil, natural gas and coal) to renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power, as well as lithium-ion batteries.

IOC owns and operates 10 oil refineries with a combined capacity of 80.6 million tonnes, which is almost one-third of India’s 251.2 million tonnes of refining capacity. It also owns 36,285 petrol stations out of the country’s 86,855. It also owns half of the country’s 25,386 LPG dispensers. It operates 131 of the country’s 283 aviation fuel stations. PTI ANZe of India’s fuel suppliers, IOC is transforming India’s energy transition—a shift from energy production and consumption systems based on fossil fuels—including oil, natural gas and coal—to renewable energy sources such as wind and solar, as well as lithium-ion batteries.

IOC owns and operates 10 oil refineries with a combined capacity of 80.6 million tonnes, almost one-third of India’s refining capacity of 251.2 million tonnes. It also owns 36,285 petrol stations out of the country’s 86,855. It also owns half of the country’s 25,386 LPG pumps. It runs 131 of the country’s 283 aviation fuel stations.