Who is Arunangshu Sarkar? All you need to know about ONGC’s director to spearhead new energy, petrochem business

Arunangshu Sarkar has been appointed as Director for new energy, petrochemicals and corporate affairs, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) said in a stock exchange filing on September 14.

The appointment comes as the board looks to revamp and breathe fresh air into the public sector behemoth.

Who is Arunangshu Sarkar?

A petroleum engineer from the Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad, Arunangshu Sarkar, is an ONGC insider.

Before the promotion, he was the Group General Manager (Production) at ONGC. He has also previously worked as General Manager (Strategy and Corporate Planning) at ONGC Videsh, the company's overseas investment arm.

ONGC Corporate Revamp

The ONGC Board was reorganised two years back to include the news posts of Director (Strategy & Corporate Affairs), and Director (Production), which was created after merging Director (Onshore) and Director (Offshore) — each in charge of all oil and gas fields located on land and offshore assets, respectively.

In addition to the Director (Production) and Director (Strategy and Corporate Affairs) posts, other key directorial positions at ONGC — exploration, finance, human resources, and technical and field services divisions — all report to Arun Kumar Singh, ONGC's MD.

As per the July 2023 office order, the new Director (Strategy & Corporate Affairs) will be in charge of joint ventures, downstream petrochemicals, new energy (renewable, hydrogen and carbon capture), corporate strategy, corporate marketing and legal.

"Present corporate strategy and planning (CS&P) group (will) be split into two verticals viz corporate planning and corporate strategy. Corporate planning would continue to report to the chairman, whereas the corporate strategy group would report to the director (strategy and corporate affairs)," it said.

The corporate affairs group under CS&P has been renamed as the ministry and parliament coordination group and will report to chief corporate planning, it added.

The revamp is on the lines of the Organisation Transformation Project (OTP) suggested by consulting firm McKinsey.

Most of the present board-level positions were created in 2001 under a McKinsey OTP plan. McKinsey's OTP was initiated in 2000 by then ONGC CMD Bikash Bora and implemented despite resistance from within the company by his successor (late) Subir Raha, who renamed OTP as the Corporate Rejuvenation Campaign (CRC).

Sources told PTI the second phase of McKinsey's recommendations is being implemented now. They added that company management has been discussing the board-level revamp with the parent administrative Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas since mid-2021.

The position of Director (Research and Development) was also suggested, but this has not been implemented yet.

(With inputs from PTI)