Director General of Hydrocarbons VK Sibal,whose dealings with private exploration firms are under CBI scrutiny,has sought premature retirement from his parent organisation Oil India Ltd. Sibal,who is on lien from OIL,wrote to Chairman-cum-Managing Director BC Bora on October 23 submitting resignation effective that day citing personal unavoidable circumstances. His tenure as DGH,the deemed upstream regulator,ends on October 31 the last day of his lien from OIL. However,OIL sources said that Sibals resignation offer would be rejected as norms demand that he rejoin OIL and put in his papers. Subsequently,the vigilance wing of the OIL would have to give a clean chit before his resignation could be considered by the OIL board. Though the motive for his quitting was unclear,OIL sources said that were Sibal not to get a second term as DGH,he would have to come back to state-run exploration company where he would have to join at a junior level than what he was before leaving for DGH. He was a board director in OIL when his five-year contract as DGH came through in 2004. If he were to revert to OIL,the maximum position that he could get would be a notch lower as executive director. And in case he was given an extension until his superannuation in January 2012,Sibal would not need to rejoin OIL and hence a resignation would be in order,they said. However,reports say that the Prime Ministers Office has conveyed to Petroleum Minister Murli Deora that Sibals extension should not be pursued in light of the allegations of his wrongdoing as DGH. Central Vigilance Commissioner Pratyush Sinha told The Indian Express earlier this month that the Central Vigilance Commission had ordered a discreet inquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into allegations about Sibals links with Reliance Industries Limited and some other players in the oil business. Under scanner is his present residential accommodation at Noida which is owned by JS Anand whose wife Mohinder Kaur Anand is a director in Quest Petroleum,a firm that was awarded an onland exploration block in November 2008 in a consortium. Moreover,the DGH office in Noida is owned by Comet Energy Solutions India (P) Ltd,whose parent company Energy World Development Ltd of Hong Kong has links with GX Technologies,a firm that was awarded seismic survey contract by DGH. The building owner Manjula Sethis husband Naresh Sethi represents Weatherford Services,a global firm in exploration service business. From April 2008 to early August,Sibals daughter Priya stayed in a 3-bedroom Mumbai apartment owned by Comet Energy Solutions. Naresh owns majority shares in Energy World.
