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 Sibal’s 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 Minister’s Office has conveyed to Petroleum Minister Murli Deora that Sibal’s extension should not be pursued in light of the allegations of his wrongdoing as DGH.

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