GAIL head Sandeep Gupta in the race for Indian Oil Corp's new chairman

Nearly a dozen candidates on Sunday appeared for interview before a search-cum-selection panel that is looking to appoint the new chairman of Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), the nation's largest oil firm, sources said.

While 10 out of the nearly 60 candidates who applied were called for interviews, GAIL chairman and managing director Sandeep Gupta is being considered a wildcard.

Gupta had not applied but was called for the interview, three sources aware of the matter said.

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

Gupta, 58, was director (finance) in IOC before he was appointed the CMD of gas utility GAIL in October 2022.

Those interviewed on Sunday included two directors on IOC board - Satish Kumar Vaduguri (Director-Marketing) and Arvind Kumar (Director-Refineries).

Five executive directors of the company too were interviewed.

Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) director (marketing) Sukhmal Kumar Jain as well as company's director (refineries) S Khanna were also interviewed, sources said adding Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) director (marketing) Amit Garg also appeared.

The panel is looking for a replacement for Shrikant Madhav Vaidya, whose one-year extension beyond his retirement age of 60 years ends on August 31. The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas had in June sought applications from engineers, chartered accountants and cost accountants with post-graduate management degrees from leading institutions and having at least five years experience in leadership roles for the top job at IOC.

The age eligibility cut off has been set at not more than 58 years for internal candidates and 57 years for outsiders with 60 years as the retirement age. But this was relaxable in the case of deserving candidates.

This discretion was used in the case of Gupta, who has less than two years before retirement in February 2026, and Satish Kumar Vaduguri, who has only 11 months of service left.

Sources said Gupta may have been the panel's choice.

"The entire process is being carried out in utmost secrecy," one of the sources cited above said.

Vaidya, who took over as the chairman of India's biggest oil company on July 1, 2020, was to retire on August 31, 2023, when he attained the superannuation age of 60 years. But he was in a rare move "re-employment on a contract basis" for one year "beyond the date of his superannuation i.e with effect from September 1, 2023, till August 31, 2024," according to an official order dated August 4, 2023.

Thereafter a three-member search-cum-selection committee was constituted to find who will head IOC after August 31, 2024. The panel is headed by the government headhunter Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB) chairperson and includes the oil secretary and former Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) chairman M K Surana as members.

The committee, however, couldn't make much progress over the age eligibility issue.

Sources said the ministry initially proposed allowing anyone who has not attained the age of 61 years to be considered for the job. This made Vaidya eligible for the job.

However, the proposal did not find favours with the Prime Minister's Office (PMO).

Thereafter the government reverted to the old system of appointing PSUs head with 60 years as the retirement age.

Prior to Vaidya, no chairman of a Maharatna PSU was given an extension beyond 60 years in recent years. In fact, the government had last year denied Ranjan Kumar Mohapatra an eight-month extension as director (human resources) of IOC till his superannuation age.

The oil ministry recommended an extension of service for Vaidya after PESB in May last year did not make any recommendation for the next chairperson of IOC after interviewing 10 candidates, including Arvind Kumar who at that time was managing director of Chennai Petroleum Corporation Ltd (CPCL).

IOC's was the second instance in recent months where PESB did not find a suitable candidate for the top job at blue-chip oil companies and retired personnel were given charge.

On June 3, 2021, PESB did not find anyone suitable from nine candidates, including two serving IAS officers, to head ONGC.

The ministry thereafter constituted a search-cum-selection panel and named Arun Kumar Singh, who had retired after attaining 60 years of age from BPCL, to head ONGC. Singh wasn't eligible to apply in the first place but the eligibility rule was changed to allow consideration of persons who have attained 60 years of age.

A similar but bigger age relaxation (allowing persons up to the age of 61 years to be considered) was being sought for IOC.

Existing rules for hiring board-level positions in PSUs allow consideration of candidature of an internal person with at least two years of service left before retirement and three years in case of outside candidates.

IOC refines crude oil into products like petrol, diesel, liquid petroleum gas (LPG), and aviation turbine fuels. It also makes petrochemicals and retails CNG.