PESB Picks HPCL's Amit Mitra for Director (Finance) at ONGC Videsh

The Public Enterprises Selection Board has recommended Amit Mitra, Executive Director and Executive Assistant to the Chairman and Managing Director of Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited, for the post of Director (Finance) at ONGC Videsh Limited. The recommendation now goes to the administrative ministry and the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet for approval.

ONGC Videsh is the overseas arm of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation and holds participating interests in oil and gas assets across South America, Africa, West Asia, Russia and South East Asia. Its portfolio includes stakes in Sakhalin-1 in Russia, Block 06.1 in Vietnam and assets in Mozambique, Sudan and Colombia. The Director (Finance) on its board handles overseas project financing, currency and country risk, valuation of acquisitions, and the accounting treatment of assets held in jurisdictions where recovery of dues has at times been uncertain. ONGC Videsh was incorporated in 1965 as Hydrocarbons India Private Limited and took its present form in 1989 as a wholly owned subsidiary of ONGC. Its production contributes to India's overseas equity oil, which is counted separately from imports in the government's energy security accounting.

Mitra has been serving as Executive Director and Executive Assistant to the CMD at HPCL, a position that sits at the centre of the corporation's decision-making and gives the holder sight of refining, marketing and corporate finance together. HPCL operates refineries at Mumbai and Visakhapatnam, holds a stake in the Bhatinda refinery through HPCL-Mittal Energy, and runs one of the largest fuel retail networks in the country. Finance executives in the downstream oil companies work on subsidy accounting, crude procurement financing and large capital expenditure programmes. HPCL's finance function also handles the refinery expansion at Visakhapatnam and the Rajasthan refinery project at Barmer, both of which involve large borrowings and phased capital expenditure. Executives working close to the CMD are involved in the board-level presentation of these projects and in the interaction with lenders.

His present role as Executive Assistant to the CMD is a staff position rather than a line one, typically given to officers being groomed for board-level appointment. It carries coordination of board agendas, interaction with the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, and oversight of corporate projects that cut across functions.

The PESB selects functional directors and chief executives for central public sector enterprises through interviews of shortlisted candidates drawn from within and outside the concerned company. Board-level appointments in the oil and gas sector have seen movement between the upstream, downstream and overseas companies, and a candidate from HPCL moving to an ONGC group company follows that pattern. The recommendation requires vigilance clearance and ACC approval before appointment. The PESB was set up in 1987 to professionalise selection to board-level posts in central public sector enterprises and conducts interviews after the administrative ministry notifies the vacancy. Candidates from within the company, from other PSUs and from the private sector are eligible where the advertisement permits, though the selected candidates are overwhelmingly from the public sector.

ONGC Videsh has been working through the difficulties of its Russian holdings, where dividend repatriation has been affected by sanctions and payment channels, and of its Venezuelan and Sudanese receivables. The company is simultaneously under pressure to add producing assets abroad as India's import dependence on crude stays above 85 per cent. The finance director's position carries the funding and risk assessment side of any new acquisition. Overseas acquisitions require the finance director to assess reserve valuations, host country fiscal terms, and the availability of financing at rates that keep the project viable at prevailing crude prices. ONGC Videsh has also had to account for impairments on assets where production or recovery has fallen short of projections.

The recommendation is for the post of Director (Finance), ONGC Videsh Limited. Mitra currently serves at Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited as Executive Director and Executive Assistant to the CMD.