Utpal Bhaskar: Adamant over oil

BACKSTAGE

For outsiders to the happening oil and gas sector in India, their first impression of the grizzly, white-haired visage of Vinod Kumar Sibal, Director General of Hydrocarbons (DGH), is a lasting one. The man conveys a bristly sense of power, combined with a penchant for speaking his mind on ticklish issues. In that sense, he is the right man for what surely is a very sensitive job "" given the size of the industry and complexities involved. But, it is perhaps only a coincidence that controversies and Sibal are co-travellers, more often than not.

Sibal is a geophysicist from Punjab University and was the director, human resources with Oil India Ltd before being appointed to the top job at DGH, India's nodal agency for the oil and gas sector, in

November 2004. He started his career with ONGC and some say that he may go back to head the same company.

True to his style, Sibal recently chose to throw the gauntlet back at Anil Ambani's Reliance Natural Resources Ltd, when he went on TV last week to say that he would quit if it was proven that he was behaving in a partial manner on the issue of allocating gas blocks. The company is upset that it stands to win only four of the 10 gas blocks on offer, instead of the six that it had hoped to bag. Many officials in Sibal's position would have perhaps refused to react publicly, but the oil sector regulator chose otherwise.

Sibal's personality and hands-on approach on many issues has ruffled many a feather in the Indian oil and gas sector. From taking on the likes of Subir Raha (former chairman of ONGC), to coming down heavily on companies choosing to trumpet their oil and gas discoveries without his clearance "" the director general has cracked the whip quite often.

Sibal also got into a skirmish with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi). The financial sector regulator reacted with alacrity to his outbursts in the media regarding premature disclosure of discoveries by ONGC and Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation. In a famous reply, Sebi Chairman M Damodaran wrote: "No communication has been received from DGH, regarding any development that merits action by Sebi. If the director-general is of the view that an act or omission has taken place, meriting Sebi's attention, it will be appropriate for him to write to Sebi rather than to have Sebi learn of his views through television channels."

Sibal is an optimist when it comes to the exploration and production potential for oil and gas in India. Petroleum and Natural Gas ministry officials credit Sibal with working towards making the DGH's working more transparent and efficient by leveraging technology. One such instance is the availability of oil block data online at the DGH website.