Sudhir Vasudeva, head of offshore oil and gas fields of Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), was today selected to head the nation’s most valuable state-owned firm by market cap.
The government's headhunters, Public Enterprise Selection Board (PESB), selected Vasudeva, 56, to takeover as chairman and managing director of ONGC after interviewing eight candidates here today, sources in the know said. PESB named R K Tyagi, Chairman and Managing Director, Pawan Hans Ltd Chairman and an ex-ONGC, as its number two choice to head ONGC when the present incumbent, R S Sharma, retires on January 31, 2011 on attaining superannuation age of 60 years. Vasudeva is currently Director (Offshore) in ONGC and is incharge of fields like the nation's prime Mumbai High, where he has deployed innovative approach and new technology to arrest the decline in output from the ageing fields.
Rabi Narayan Bastia, the man who discovered India's biggest gas field, was among the eight candidates who appeared for personal interviews before the PESB board.
Bastia, who quit ONGC in 1996 to join Reliance Industries, is credited with discovering the gigantic Dhirubhai-1 gas field at the Krishna Godavari basin deep-sea block, D6 in 2002. It was ranked as the biggest gas find in the world over the last decade.
Sources said others who appeared for PESB interview included ONGC Director (Finance) D K Saraf, Oil India Director (Exploration) B N Talukdar, Imperial Energy CEO Ashok Verma and GAIL Executive Director B N Trivedi.
