The petroleum ministry is set to start the search for a new head of the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH), which means the incumbent BN Talukdar won’t get another extension.

“The advertisement would be given out shortly and the current DGH would not be given an extension,” a senior government official told FE. The term of Talukdar, who was given a six-month extension by the Narendra Modi government in December, would come to an end in June. He has been holding the post since early-2014.

The top post at the DGH has been one of the most-sought-offer regulatory assignments,. The DGH    looks after the multi-billion dollar exploration programmes; its nod is mandatory for all field development plans that is needed for explorers to monetise a hydrocarbon asset.

The regulator’s opinion also prevails on whether or not to extend production sharing contract (PSC) and it is mandated to approve costs and acceptance of declaration of commerciality (DoC).

The Narendra Modi government has offered more powers to the DGH for deciding on pleas from the exploration companies. The industry watchers feel that the DGH should be a person with experience in the oil and gas industry rather than a career bureaucrat. This is because they feel that hydrocarbon exploration being a tedious and cost-intensive job, it cannot be governed by an inflexible rule book.  Talukdar, who had worked for 37 years in the oil and gas sector, had replaced R N Choubey, a 1981 batch IAS officer of the Tamil Nadu cadre handpicked for the post by then UPA’s petroleum minister S Jaipal Reddy. Choubey, the only bureaucrat to head the DGH, was at helm of affairs for nearly two years before Talukdar took over.

Talukdar, who was director on the board of state-run explorer Oil India prior to heading the DGH, have been running the show where the regulator has taken up several new initiatives such as setting up of the national data repository (NDR) and putting in-place a real time monitoring of exploration projects.

Jaipal Reddy’s choice, Choubey as the DGH, saw the regulator toeing the hard line with private explorer RIL, when the government for the first time disallowed cost recovery of $1.8 billion spent in the KGD6 block operated by the Mukesh Ambani firm. Currently, Choubey is appointed as the special secretary in the ministry of power.

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