New interim heads of ONGC, IOC take over
New Delhi   01-Feb-2011

Country’s two largest state-run enterprises — ONGC and IOC — will have new ad-hoc heads from Tuesday.

Government on Monday appointed AK Hazarika, who is presently director onshore of ONGC, as the new CMD for three months beginning Tuesday. The explorer’s present CMD RS Sharma retired on Monday.

When contacted, Hazarika told Financial Chronicle that his primary motive would be to keep ONGC growth story moving ahead. “This (ONGC) organisation is growing. I will have to maintain the growth path. I will have to take decisions for further growth,” Hazarika added.

Similarly, IOC’s finance — director, Serangulam V Narasimhan has been entrusted with additional charge of CMD from Tuesday. IOC’s acting head BM Bansal retired on Monday. “IOC will continue to grow. Under-recovery is part of the system. Government will continue its support especially IOC,” Narasimhan told FC.

IOC remained headless after last CMD Sarthak Behuria retired 11 months back.

The Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB), which selects heads of public sector companies, has short-listed RS Butola, managing director of ONGC Videsh, to head IOC. On the other hand, ONGC’s director-offshore Sudhir Vasudeva tops the list of contenders for chairmanship. RK Tyagi, CMD of Pawan Hans Helicopters is PESB’s second choice.

New petroleum minister S Jaipal Reddy is yet to give his nod for new heads of IOC and ONGC.