New Delhi: Seven candidates are in contention for the post of chairman and managing director of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), according to an office memorandum accessed by PSU Watch. The list is headed by Ranjit Rath, Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of Oil India Limited, and Rajarshi Gupta, Managing Director of ONGC Videsh Limited.
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Two serving ONGC directors are in the running — Vikram Saxena, Director for Technology and Field Services, and Satyam Kumar, Director for Strategy and Corporate Affairs. They are joined by Dulal Halder, Director for Operations at ONGC Videsh; Devendra Kumar, Director for Finance at Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited (MRPL), and SP Shrivastava, Director for Marketing at Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL).
The memorandum describes the seven as a consolidated list of applicants "shortlisted/ received for consideration under the prescribed selection guidelines."
Every one of the seven comes from the public sector. That matters because the government reworked the eligibility rules ahead of this round specifically to widen the pool. Candidates from other central public sector undertakings, state-owned energy companies and private sector energy firms were all made eligible, opening a post that has historically drawn from ONGC and the petroleum public sector. The shortlist includes no private sector applicant.
The memorandum sets out the composition of the Search-Cum-Selection Committee (SCSC) that will recommend the appointment. It has three members: the chairperson of the Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB) as Chairperson, the Secretary of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas as an ex-officio member, and an outside expert described only as a former Chairman of Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL).
The appointment is being routed through this committee rather than the PESB's standard selection process. That is not a departure for the post — when ONGC last went through a full CMD selection in 2022, the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet approved the same route, and the committee then comprised PESB chairperson Mallika Srinivasan, Petroleum Secretary Pankaj Jain and former Indian Oil Chairman B Ashok as the outside expert.
Applications for the post closed on July 22. The chair falls vacant on December 7, when incumbent Arun Kumar Singh's tenure ends. Under the revised conditions, the maximum age at the date of vacancy is 59, the initial appointment runs for three years and can be extended by up to two more after a performance review, and any employment or extension beyond the age of 60 is to be on a contract basis.
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Singh, who leaves in December, was himself an appointment from outside ONGC. He joined the company in 2022 after retiring as Chairman of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL), becoming the first person to head a Maharatna public sector undertaking after retirement, and was given a one-year extension in December 2025.
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