Govt Raises ONGC Chairman Entry Age To 59, Offers Up To Five-year Tenure

New Delhi: The government has relaxed the eligibility conditions for appointing the next chairman of state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) by raising the maximum entry age to 59 years and offering the successful candidate a fixed three-year term extendable by up to two years, widening the pool of eligible contenders to head India's largest oil and gas producer.

The government’s headhunter, Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB), has invited applications for the key post in state-owned oil and gas company, which will fall vacant on December 7 when incumbent Arun Kumar Singh completes his extended tenure. However, the selection for the post is likely to be made by a search-cum-selection committee constituted by the oil ministry instead of the normal PESB selection process.

Under the ONGC advertisement, candidates should not have attained the age of 59 years on the date of occurrence of the vacancy -- December 7, 2026. The selected candidate will initially be appointed for three years, with the tenure extendable by another two years after a performance review. “Any employment or extension of tenure beyond the age of 60 shall be on a contract basis,” the advertisement said.

The revised age limit marks a departure from the norms followed for most board-level appointments in Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs). While recent appointments have largely been governed by a residual service criterion rather than fixed age limits, the advertisement prescribes a maximum entry age of 59 years, allowing both internal and external candidates who would otherwise have been ineligible to be considered.

The tenure conditions are also a departure from the prevailing practice of appointing PSU chiefs until the age of superannuation, which is generally 60 years. Under the revised framework, a chairman may continue beyond that age on a contractual basis. The government had made a similar relaxation when appointing Singh in 2022.

A search-cum-selection committee constituted by the oil ministry picked him in August that year, barely two months before he turned 60, making him the first executive of that age to be appointed chairman of a blue-chip state-run company. Singh, who retired as chairman and managing director of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd in October 2022, took charge of ONGC on December 6, 2022, after the government relaxed the eligibility criteria.