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Life has come full circle for Mr Sunil Kumar Srivastava. On Tuesday, he took charge as Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of Oil India Ltd (OIL), where he has spent three decades of his over 35 years in the upstream sector.
As CMD, Mr Srivastava will have a tenure of over three years till June 2015, when he will superannuate at age 60. Before this, Mr Srivastava was the Director-General in the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH).
Mr Srivastava's replacement in the DGH is yet to be finalised. He handed over the charge to the Joint Secretary, Exploration, in the Ministry for Petroleum and Natural Gas.
The public sector exploration company, OIL's crude oil production in the past fiscal was 3.847 million tonnes (including the share from joint ventures). The company produced 2,633.29 mscm of natural gas.
He said the main focus will be increasing oil and gas output. On an ambitious note, he said the target is to take the company to the Maharatna level. In 2010, OIL became a Navratna.
d-6 debate
The office of the DGH has had its own share of public scrutiny. And, Mr Srivastava had his share of differences with Reliance Industries Ltd on how to increase output from the D-6 gas fields during his stint.
He had rejected Reliance's contention that geological complexities stopped it from firming up appropriate drilling locations in D-6 block.
Output from the D-1 and D-3 gas producing fields in the block has been lower because fewer development wells (or producing wells) have been drilled compared with what was envisaged in the development plan approved by the block management committee, according to the DGH.
Recently, Reliance and its partners in the block got an approval to survey only a part of the area of discoveries made. They had sought a nod for surveying potential of all gas discoveries made in the block instead.
Reliance — which is currently producing around 34-35 mscmd from D-1, D-3 and MA fields in the block, down from around 50 mscmd and 40 mscmd in the March and December quarters in the past financial year — was seeking permission to survey the entire block.
That would have helped it in submitting an integrated field development plan to enhance output.
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