Six appear for ONGC chairman interview; Alka Mittal, Vaidya skip

New Delhi: Six candidates, including Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd chairman Arun Kumar Singh and Engineers India Ltd head Vartika Shukla on Saturday appeared for an interview before a search-cum-selection committee that is looking for a new head for India's top oil and gas producer ONGC, sources said.

The panel had called nine candidates, including ONGC's outgoing chairman Alka Mittal and Indian Oil Corporation's (IOC) head S M Vaidya for interviews, three sources with knowledge of the matter said.

Mittal and Vaidya chose not to appear for the interview, they said. Prominent among those who appeared were Singh, who is due to retire from the top Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) job at end of October and who has already been selected to head regulatory body Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB), and Engineers India Ltd (EIL) chairman and managing director Vartika Shukla.

Others who appeared for the interview included Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) directors Pankaj Kumar and Rajesh Kumar Srivastava.

Two of the three external candidates called for the interview appeared before the panel, they said. The choice of the selection committee was not immediately known and the appointment will take at least 2-3 months as the candidate selected will have to be cleared by anti-corruption bodies like CBI and CVC before the name is put up to the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet for final vetting and approval.

For now, ONGC will next week get a record third interim chairman.