Reliance Industries Ltd has announced the appointment of Former Indian Oil Corp (IOC) Chairman Sanjiv Singh as Group President for Mukesh Ambani-run firm's oil-to-chemicals business.

“Sanjiv, who superannuated from India's largest oil firm on June 30, will be a member of the oil-to-chemicals (O2C) business leadership team. He will lead and drive the Group manufacturing services (GMS) organization which is the backbone of our oil-to-chemicals business,” stated Hital R. Meswani, Executive Director, Reliance. "Sanjiv will be working closely with the undersigned and the O2C leadership team to assume responsibility for GMS areas in a phased manner over the next 3-4 months," he adds.

RIL's O2C business consists of the group's twin oil refineries at Jamnagar in Gujarat, petrochemical plants, 51 percent of fuel retail and aviation fuel venture, and bulk wholesale marketing businesses. It does not include the firm's upstream oil and gas exploration assets that include 66.6 percent interest in the eastern offshore

Sanjiv will be working closely with the undersigned and the O2C leadership team to assume responsibility for GMS areas in a phased manner over the next 3-4 months

KG-D6 block. RIL is in the process of carving out the O2C business into a separate unit, called Reliance O2C Ltd, for a possible sale of a 20 percent interest to Saudi Aramco for an asking of $15 billion. The firm had earlier this year hired former IOC Chairman Sarthak Behuria as a senior advisor to help shape the firm's fuel retail business.

The refining and marketing business of RIL is headed by Hital R. Meswani. Surinder Sani is the Group President of the Refining Business, according to the company's latest annual report. Par Singh is the head of Manufacturing at RIL. PK Kapil, one of the two non-promoter family directors on the board of RIL, is the Executive Director of the division.

A chemical engineer from IIT-Roorkee with a diploma in management, Sanjiv was the chairman of IOC for three years. Prior to that he was Director Refineries at the company and oversaw the construction of India's newest oil refinery at Paradip in Odisha. "During his tenure at IOC, Sanjiv was instrumental in setting up and commissioning of two of IOC's biggest greenfield refineries at Panipat (in Haryana) and Paradip," stated Hital R. Meswani.