New Delhi, May 14: A Head-hunting committee, constituted to select the chairman of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), today decided against sending interview calls to executives from private firms like Shell and Blackstone, who had not formally applied for the job. The Search Committee, headed by Public Enterprise Selection Board chairman N K Sinha, will interview only the 27 candidates who have applied for the post, sources said.

The Committee could not, however, decide on the date of the interviews as former finance secretary Vijay Kelkar, one of the two outside members appointed on the head-hunting panel, was absent. Kelkar, due to whose unavailability the Search Committee could not hold a meeting after April 17, wanted to invite Shell India chairman Vikram Singh Mehta, Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd managing director Swapan K Bhowmik, private equity firm Blackstone’s India chairman Akhil Gupta and a board member of engineering firm L&T for the interviews.

The interviews may take place in the first or second week of June, sources said.

The candidates who have applied include former joint secretary (petroleum and natural gas) Najeeb Jung and ONGC’s acting chairman R S Sharma. ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL) managing director R S Butola, ONGC director (onshore) A K Hazarika, director (HR) A K Balyan, director (exploration) D K Pandey, director (technical) U N Bose and GAIL director (HR) M R Hingnikar are also in the fray.

Sources said that the April 17 meeting of the Search Committee was inconclusive, as Kelkar’s suggestion of inviting people who had not applied was not supported by Sinha and other members.

A total of 27 candidates meet the eligibility criteria and all of them will be interviewed.Sharma was the first choice of PESB in the initial interviews done in August 2006. Hazarika was the second best choice, but the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) scrapped the panel and asked for a broader selection process by inviting candidates from the private sector too.

The PMO did not make any adverse remarks against either Sharma or Hazarika but rather questioned the selection process, making it explicit that they were eligible for future selection.

Hindustan Petroleum’s subsidiary Prize Petroleum CEO M N Prasad, Essar Oil vice-president H N Belawat, Surya Roshi president B B Pradhan, Singareni Collieries director J V Dattatreyulu, Borosil Glass Works director R V Pillai, Hubli Electric Supply director (finance) K Muthupandian and Agasthya Biofarm India Ltd chairman D Aravindakshan are among the candidates who meet the eligibility criteria for the top job.

The official said that prominent among the candidates is 56-year old Jung, who in 1995 resigned from the civil services after a 23-year stint to join the Asian Development Bank (ADB). He was the joint secretary (exploration) in early 1990s and is currently a visiting fellow at Oxford Energy Research Centre, London. He also served as director (energy research) at the Reliance Industries-funded

Observer Research Foundation. Besides Jung, only Butola had not appeared for the August 2006 interviews conducted by PSEB.