OREANDA-NEWS. December 5, 2011. Essar Oil Limited (EOL), a subsidiary of Essar Energy plc, today announced the appointment of Naresh Nayyar as Deputy Chairman and Lalit Kumar Gupta as Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Essar Oil.

Until now, Mr Nayyar has held the dual roles of Chief Executive Officer of Essar Energy plc and Managing Director & CEO of Essar Oil. Mr Gupta’s appointment allows Mr Nayyar to relinquish his current role at Essar Oil and to focus on his wider executive responsibilities across the Essar Energy portfolio. These include the refining, power, and exploration and production businesses. He will remain on the board of Essar Oil as a non-executive director in the newly created role of Deputy Chairman.

A rank-holder Chartered Accountant, Mr Gupta is also a Company Secretary and has a bachelor’s degree in Commerce (gold medallist) from Jiwaji University, Gwalior.  With 31 years of experience, he joins Essar Oil from JSW Energy, where he was the Chief Executive Officer and the Joint Managing Director. Prior to this, he was associated with Mangalore Refinery & Petrochemicals as Director-Finance and was recognized by CNBC TV18 as the Best Performing CFO in the Indian Oil & Gas sector in 2008-09.

Mr Nayyar said: “Lalit Gupta’s appointment comes at a key time for Essar Oil, where we are nearing the completion of our phase one expansion at the Vadinar refinery. The global refining scenario is increasingly becoming more challenging. With his vast experience in the energy sector in India, he would be able to create much greater value for the stakeholders of Essar Energy.” 

Mr Gupta said: “I am keenly looking forward to my new role. Essar Oil is amongst the world’s leading refiners with a robust marketing business. I am excited about the challenge of taking Essar Oil to greater heights.”