New Delhi, Jan. 17: The government is set to appoint a new managing director for Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL) and a director (finance) for the company. The move is expected to considerably reduce ONGC chairman Subir Raha’s clout in the downstream business.

A senior petroleum ministry official told The Telegraph that several candidates were interviewed for the two posts (in MRPL) last week and the names would be announced soon after the approval of the appointments committee of the cabinet.

Mangalore Refinery has been closely managed by ONGC chairman Subir Raha with a team of vice-presidents after it was taken over nearly three years ago, following the exit of the Aditya Birla group from the loss-making joint venture with Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL). ONGC now owns a 74 per cent stake in MRPL while HPCL holds 16 per cent.

MRPL had posted a net profit of Rs 880 crore for the financial year ended March 31 last, representing a 92 per cent jump over the corresponding figure of Rs 459 crore for the previous fiscal.

The government had converted MRPL into an autonomous ‘schedule B’ public sector company last year and appointed two petroleum ministry officials on its board of directors.

The appointments of a managing director and a finance director on the board will reduce Raha’s say in the day-to-day management of the company, though he will still remain the chairman of MRPL, which is now a subsidiary of ONGC.

Raha and petroleum minister Mani Shankar Aiyar had serious differences over the former’s grand plan for moving MRPL up the value chain into the petrochemicals business. Raha had floated a Rs 25,000-crore proposal for taking up the petrochemicals venture and setting up an LNG terminal and power plant in Mangalore.

Petroleum minister Mani Shankar Aiyar was against it. According to him, ONGC should stick to oil exploration since it has been its core area of competence.

However, Raha with the backing of the Karnataka chief minister had managed to get the PMO to step in to keep the proposal alive.

Joint secretary Sanjoy Joshi, who looks after the upstream sector, and V.P. Joy, director in the petroleum ministry, will be the government members on the MRPL board.

The 9.69-million tonne, state-of-the-art, coastal refinery has achieved an over 100 per cent throughput during this fiscal.