NEW DELHI: IndianOil director (pipelines) Akshay Kumar Singh will head India’s largest gas importing company, Petronet LNG, sources close to the company’s board-appointed selection committee said.
Singh will succeed Prabhat Singh, who completed his 5-year term in September but did not get extension for two years that he was eligible for. In March, the oil ministry told Parliament in a written reply it had received several allegations of alleged corruption/irregularities against Prabhat Singh.
This will mark Singh’s return to the gas business as he was executive director in state-run gas utility GAIL before joining the IndianOil board in 2018 as in charge of the company’s substantial pipeline network.
A mechanical engineer from MIT, Muzaffarpur (Bihar) and a post-graduate in turbomachinery from South Gujarat University, Singh has about 34 years of experience in the oil and gas industry.
At IndianOil, Singh red-flagged a move to hive off the company’s vast network of pipelines and storage depots, a vital infrastructure that gave India’s largest fuel refiner and retailer an edge in the market.
At Petronet, his primary challenge will be tackling the pricing conundrum of long-term contracts in the backdrop of falling spot prices.
