Row over govt nominee on ONGC board

The appointment of two government directors on the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation board has not become effective since the board has not adopted a resolution to this effect.

Senior ministry officials told Business Standard, the company has not invited any of the two government nominees, Director General of Hydrocarbons, V K Sibal, and Special Secretary in the ministry of petroleum and natural gas, M S Srinivasan, for the ONGC board meetings.

ONGC chairman and managing director Subir Raha has taken a stand that the appointment of the two directors was not in line with the norms of Securities and Exchange Board of India since this would take the number of government directors on the company's board to five. ONGC has two nominees from the ministry of petroleum and natural gas and one from the ministry of finance.

Besides, Raha has said Sibal's appointment meant inclusion of a regulator since DGH has been projected as the regulator for the upstream sector.

"The ministry officials in Norway had even today announced that DGH would be modelled along the lines of Norwegian regulator Norwegian Petroleum Directorate," pointed out an official.

Raha has threatened to resign if the government pushes for the two appointments. His tenure expires in June next year though it is extendable by three years till his reaching the age of superannuation.

The government is yet to clear appointments of two full-time directors on the ONGC board which includes director (exploration) and director technical and field services. In all there are 10 directors on the company's board, including three full-time directors, one Indian Oil Corporation nominee, three government nominee and three independent nominees.

The appointment of directors on ONGC and its subsidiary Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL) has been one of the many tiffs which ONGC management has had with the petroleum ministry. The Mangalore petrochemical and power project was another sticky issue.