Headless AAAB office in Assam
Three months after Sushma Rawat became ONGC's new exploration director, the division she left behind in Assam still has no full-time executive director (ED).
Weeks after Rawat's appointment in Delhi on January 1 (2023), ONGC catapulted group general manager Deepak Sareen to replace her as 'interim' head of the exploration-focused Jorhat-based Assam & Assam Arakan Basin (AAAB) office. But geophysicist Sareen, a former OVL country manager in New Zealand, where he oversaw a 14-year permit won in December 2014 to explore the Taranaki Basin, retires on June 30 (2023).
No one knows who will replace him or when. This has inevitably triggered speculation that ONGC directors have lost interest in the northeast.
"Assam used to have four executive directors," says a source. "But it doesn't have the same importance as before."
Another source adds ONGC is acting irresponsibly by not appointing a permanent ED to head the AAAB in the critical three months before the start of the new financial year on April 1 (2023). "Any new basin manager needs time to plan and release targets for the coming financial year," he says.
"But an interim manager (Sareen) won't take any risks knowing he's retiring soon." This is more important than ever at the AAAB office, responsible for selecting and drilling exploration wells across the entire northeast in Assam, Tripura, Jorhat and unexplored areas like Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram.
But all might not be lost. Yet another source points out that corporate promotion interviews at ONGC are underway to select the next batch of GGMs promoted from CGMs and EDs promoted from GGMs.
"Once these interviews are over," he says, "perhaps we'll get to know who will be the next head of the AAAB."