Prabhat Singh, PK Bajpai among 13 in race to head Petronet LNG

A Search Committee will hold interviews to select the new MD and CEO tomorrow,

Prabhat Singh, director (marketing) GAIL and P K Bajpai, director (finance) BHEL, are among the 13 candidates in the race to become the managing director and chief executive officer (MD & CEO) of Petronet LNG, the nation's biggest liquid gas importer.

A search committee will hold interviews to select the new MD & CEO on Monday, industry sources said.

Besides Singh and Bajpai, Oil India Ltd Chairman and Managing Director S K Srivastava and Engineers India Ltd head A K Purwaha are also in the race. Others who applied for the post at close of applications on March 20 include GAIL Directors P K Jain and Ashutosh Karnatak, Petronet LNG Ltd Director (Finance) R K Garg and its Director (Technical) Rajender Singh, they said.

Sources said interview call letters have been sent to all those who applied on March 21. They will appear before a three-member Search Committee on Monday.

The government has decided not to give an extension to the incumbent A K Balyan.

Balyan's five-year term ends on July 15 and he is eligible for an extension till his superannuation in July 2016, but the Ministry has decided against giving him an extension.

On March 3, an advertisement was issued inviting applications for the new CEO and candidates with "exceptional leadership qualities, strong negotiation and communications skills and familiarity with finance/project management in a large organisation" were asked to apply by March 20.

The window for applying for the job had been cut to just two weeks instead of the previous four weeks, they said.

Balyan, who turns 64 in July, was appointed MD & CEO of Petronet for a five-year term beginning July 16, 2010.

Sources said the Ministry is keen to appoint a new head before Oil Secretary Saurabh Chandra retires at the end of April. The new head, however, will assume charge from July 16.

Balyan, who was then Director for Human Resources and Business Development in ONGC, was in May 2010 selected for the top job at Petronet by a panel consisting of the heads of the promoters of the company.