New Delhi: Arvindar Singh Sahney has been appointed as the new Chairman of Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), the country’s largest oil company, according to a notification issued by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas on November 13, 2024.

Sahney, 54, is currently serving as the Executive Director for Business Development – Petrochemicals at IOC. He was selected for the role of Director (Business Development) in August, but his new appointment elevates him to the top position at the company. 

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) has approved the appointment of Sahney as Chairman for a five-year term, effective from the date he assumes charge, or until his superannuation, whichever comes first, the Ministry confirmed in its official order.

Sahney’s appointment follows the completion of Shrikant Madhav Vaidya’s extended tenure as Chairman on August 31, 2024. In the interim, Satish Kumar Vaduguri, IOC’s Director of Marketing, has been holding the additional charge of Chairman.

Sahney is only the second person to be appointed to the IOC chairman's role without prior experience on the company’s board. The first was B Ashok, who was Executive Director (Retail) when he assumed the role in July 2014.

With over three decades of experience at IOC, Sahney has had a long and distinguished career with the company. He holds a degree in chemical engineering from Harcourt Butler Technical University, Kanpur, and began his career at Tata Chemicals before joining IOC in 1993. He was appointed Executive Director in February 2022. 

Sahney was selected from a pool of candidates by the Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB) in August 2024 for the role of Director (Business Development). Prior to this, he was interviewed for the Chairman position in August by a search-cum-selection committee, which also considered candidates like GAIL Chairman Sandeep Gupta and IOC Directors Satish Kumar Vaduguri and Arvind Kumar.

As the leader of IOC, Sahney will oversee the company’s operations, including its refining, petrochemical production, and retailing activities. IOC is a key player in India's energy sector, refining crude oil into fuels like petrol, diesel, LPG, and aviation turbine fuel. The company also plays a critical role in India’s energy transition, focusing on renewable energy sources such as wind and solar, as well as the development of lithium-ion batteries.

IOC operates 10 refineries with a combined capacity of 80.6 million tonnes, accounting for almost a third of India’s total refining capacity. It also manages 36,285 petrol pumps and half of the nation’s LPG distributors. In the aviation sector, IOC runs 131 out of the country’s 283 aviation fuel stations.

BI Bureau