The race for the top posts at the three largest state-owned oil companies - Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL) and Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) - has begun in the earnest with several candidates joining the fray.
The chiefs of the three corporations are set to hang up their boots in 2002 at a time when the industry will be bracing to take on the new deregulated regime. Besides the prime slots, over five directors in these three companies are also due to retire over the next couple of months.
M A Pathan, chairman and managing director (CMD) of the Rs 113,327 crore IOC, will be the first to retire on March 31, 2002. He will be followed by H L Zutshi, CMD of the Rs 47,179.93 crore HPCL in May, 2002 and U Sundararajan, CMD of the Rs 46,853 crore BPCL on June 30, 2002.
Although it will be a while before the Public Sector Enterprise Board (PSEB) calls the aspiring candidates for interview, the contenders have already started pulling strings in the ministry.
A senior executive with one of the oil companies said, "The nominations have already reached the PSEB in the last week of August. The dates for the interview are expected to be announced sometime in October when the oil companies are through with their annual general meetings."
Two internal candidates who are vying for the top post at Indian Oil are P Sugavanam, director (finance) and M S Ramachandran, director (planning and business development). The ministry is also considering an outside candidate S N Mathur, CMD of IBP for IOC's post, say sources in the oil sector. Mathur has also applied for the post of CMD in HPCL.
With the deregulation of the sector imminent from April 2002, IOC's position may be filled by an officiating CMD and the name suggested is Arjun K Arora, director (refineries) at IOC.
D S Mathur, director (refineries) is also one of the strongest internal candidates for HPCL, while M B Lal, director (refineries) and S Behuria director (marketing) both from BPCL have applied for HPCL's post. Lal and Behuria have also been nominated for the post of CMD in BPCL along with Ashok Sinha, director (finance) of BPCL.
"The game plan has completely changed in recent times and a number of junior executives are hopeful of bagging plump posts," an executive with an oil PSU said. However, the minister of petroleum and natural gas will have a final word on the fate of each candidate.
