Ex-SAIL chief, GAIL director in race for Petronet LNG top job

NEW DELHI: Former SAIL chairman SC Verma and GAIL Director (Marketing) Prabhat Singh are among over a dozen candidates in race to top job at India’s largest liquefied natural gas importer, Petronet LNG.

A search committee comprising representatives of all Petronet’s promoters — GAIL, IOC, ONGC, BPCL and GdF of France — will interview the candidates on July 29 to select the new CEO of Petronet, officials said.

The government had in June denied Verma, 56, an extension of service till his superannuation age in 2019. He was appointed CMD of state-owned steel producer SAIL by the previous UPA government in June 2010. Besides Verma and Singh, other who have applied for the Petronet job include GAIL Directors (Projects) Ashutosh Karnatak, ONGC Director (Onshore) Ashok Varma and ONGC Videsh Director (Finance) SP Garg.

Petronet Director (Finance) RK Garg and its Director (Technical) Rajender Singh have also applied, they said. Officials said a Search Committee of promoters replaced a previous ad-hoc panel to select a successor to AK Balyan, who completed his five year term on July 15. He was eligible for an extension till he attains the superannuation age of 65 years in July 2016, but he was not given an extension.