New Delhi, Oil India Ltd chairman and managing director Ranjit Rath is among more than half a dozen candidates who have applied for the top job at state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), people familiar with the matter said.
Rath, 54, is seeking the ONGC chairman and managing director's post for a second consecutive year after the government relaxed eligibility criteria, including the maximum age for the position.
The Oil India chief was among the candidates shortlisted for the ONGC post last year, but the government chose to extend the tenure of incumbent Arun Kumar Singh by a year.
Rath has headed Oil India, India's second-largest state-run oil and gas explorer, since August 2022.
Others who have applied include ONGC Videsh Ltd managing director Rajarshi Gupta, who became eligible after the government raised the maximum entry age to 59 years.
Gupta, 59, who is due to superannuate in July 2027, is the senior-most among all the internal candidates applying for the position.
ONGC's director for technology and field services Vikram Saxena and the firm's director for strategy and corporate affairs Satyam Kumar as well as OVL's director for operations Dulal Halder are the other internal candidates applying for the position, sources said.
Also in fray are MRPL director (finance) Devendra Kumar, and Indian Oil Corporation's (IOC) director for marketing S P Shrivastava.
The Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB), the government's headhunter for appointments to state-run firms, had invited applications for the post, which will fall vacant on December 7 when incumbent Arun Kumar Singh completes his extended tenure. Applications closed on July 22.
As per the advertisement, candidates should not have attained the age of 59 years on the date of occurrence of the vacancy -- December 7, 2026. The selected candidate will initially be appointed for three years, with the tenure extendable by another two years after a performance review.
"Any employment or extension of tenure beyond the age of 60 shall be on a contract basis," the advertisement said.
The selection will be made by a search-cum-selection committee constituted by the oil ministry instead of the normal PESB selection process.
The revised age limit marks a departure from the norms followed for most board-level appointments in Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs).
While recent appointments have largely been governed by a residual service criterion rather than fixed age limits, the ONGC advertisement prescribes a maximum entry age of 59 years, allowing both internal and external candidates who would otherwise have been ineligible to be considered.
The tenure conditions are also a departure from the prevailing practice of appointing PSU chiefs until the age of superannuation, which is generally 60 years. Under the revised framework, a chairman may continue beyond that age on a contractual basis.
While the original advertisement listed engineering graduate, CAs or cost accountants or a graduate with full time MBA/PGDIM as educational qualification, an addendum stated that "the applicant should be a first-class graduate with a degree in Engineering/ Chartered Accountancy/Cost Accountancy or Post Graduate or a Graduate with a full-time MBA/PGDIM from a leading institute."
The government had made a similar relaxation when appointing Singh in 2022.
A search-cum-selection committee constituted by the oil ministry picked him in August that year, barely two months before he turned 60, making him the first executive of that age to be appointed chairman of a blue-chip state-run company.
Singh, who retired as chairman and managing director of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd in October 2022, took charge of ONGC on December 6, 2022, after the government relaxed the eligibility criteria. Last year, the Centre granted him a rare one-year extension, allowing him to continue as ONGC chairman until December 6, 2026, by which time he will be over 64 years old.
The government had initiated a search for a regular chairman last year.
PESB invited applications in April 2025 and more than a dozen candidates, including OIL's Rath, applied. However, no interviews were held, and the selection process remained inconclusive without any official explanation.
ONGC had remained without a full-time chief between April 2021 and December 2022, during which the company was headed by three interim chairmen before Singh's appointment.
According to the job description, the chairman will be responsible for the overall management and strategic direction of the company, including driving growth in revenue and profitability, leading ONGC's exploration and production business, overseeing expansion into new energy and petrochemicals through acquisitions and joint ventures, and steering technology adoption across the organisation.
