Ranjit Rath takes over as Oil India chairman

Ranjit Rath has taken over as the new chairman and managing director of India’s second-largest state-run oil and gas producer, Oil India Ltd.

A geoscientist, Rath is an alumnus of IIT Bombay, IIT Kharagpur and Utkal University and took over the charge on August 2, the company said in a statement on Wednesday.

Rath, 50, previously was chairman and managing director of Mineral Exploration Corporation Ltd (MECL) and was selected for the top job at Oil India Ltd by the government headhunter in March. He replaces Sushil Chandra Mishra who superannuated on June 30.

Rath will be among the youngest to have occupied the corner office at a public sector unit. He has 10 years before he retires in January 2032. A geoscientist with impeccable experience and expertise of more than 25 years in the field of geosciences, Rath is a recipient of the prestigious National Geosciences Award from the President of India, the statement said.

According to his Linkedin profile, he joined the engineering consultancy firm Engineers India in 1996. He rose to the rank of General Manager in the firm. He was also CEO of Khanij Bidesh India Ltd, managing director of Bharat Gold Mines Limited and held additional charge of the Director General of Geological Survey of India. "Rath has a rich portfolio of diverse roles spanning from strategy formulation, business development and upstream asset management to application of geosciences and exploration geology in several important projects including the creation of Strategic Petroleum Reserves (SPRs)," it added.

Prior to selecting him as head of OIL, the Public Enterprise Selection Board (PESB) had on June 28, 2021, selected Rath for the post of chairman and managing director of Bharat Coking Coal Ltd (BCCL). It was not clear why he wasn’t appointed to that post. In December 2021, Samiran Dutta (Director of Finance) of BCCL, was appointed as the new chairman and managing director of BCCL.