Sunil Kumar, ONGC Executive Director, Named Chairman of the Maharatna Oil and Gas Producer

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the appointment of Sunil Kumar, Executive Director at Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), as the company's new Chairman. As per a DoPT letter dated October 21, 2026, he will assume charge on December 7, 2026.

He will continue until his superannuation on December 31, 2028, and thereafter on contract basis, for a combined period of three years. ONGC is India's top oil and gas producer and functions under the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.

ONGC's disclosure of January 2025 named a Sunil Kumar among five Executive Directors appointed with effect from January 9, 2025, alongside Himanshu Pant, Devendra Kumar, Bhaskar Chowdary Nettem and Prabal Sengupta. The company's profile then put his professional experience at 33 years. He began as Assistant Executive Engineer (Production) at Hazira and later worked at Sivasagar and Nazira, Mumbai, Delhi and Kakinada. He holds a B.Tech in petroleum engineering and an MBA with a specialisation in marketing.

The choice goes to an insider. When the government filled the post in December 2022, it picked Arun Kumar Singh, former chairman of BPCL, for a three-year term. That was the first time a retired person had been named head of a Maharatna company. ONGC had been without a regular chairman and managing director since April 2021, and had gone through a record three interim heads, the senior-most director holding additional charge each time.

The DoPT letter is dated October 21, 2026. Sunil Kumar assumes charge on December 7, 2026.