Sanjay Kumar, Director (Marketing) at state-owned GAIL (India) Ltd, has been appointed Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Petronet LNG Ltd, which operates India’s largest liquefied natural gas import terminal. He will take charge on May 13, 2027, when the extended tenure of incumbent CEO A K Singh ends.
Petronet LNG’s board approved Kumar’s appointment at a meeting held on October 2, according to a regulatory filing. The 59-year-old executive will serve a five-year term.
Kumar has been GAIL’s Director (Marketing) since mid-June 2023 and has more than 35 years of experience across the natural gas and LNG value chain. He is a mechanical engineering graduate of IIT Kharagpur and holds an MBA.
The leadership transition comes as India seeks to increase the share of natural gas in its energy mix and expand LNG import and regasification infrastructure. Petronet LNG operates the Dahej terminal in Gujarat and an LNG terminal in Kochi, Kerala. Dahej is the country’s largest LNG import terminal and is a major entry point for imported gas supplied to the domestic market.
Petronet currently has 27.5 million tonnes a year (MMTPA) of regasification capacity, comprising 22.5 MMTPA at Dahej and 5 MMTPA at Kochi. The company says it handles about 74 per cent of India’s LNG imports and accounts for around 34 per cent of the country’s gas supplies.
The company is pursuing an expansion of regasification capacity at Dahej, along with a greenfield LNG terminal on India’s east coast and a petrochemicals project at Dahej. These projects will form part of the infrastructure agenda facing the incoming chief executive after he assumes office.
Petronet is majority-owned by four state-owned oil companies: Indian Oil Corporation, GAIL, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation and Bharat Petroleum Corporation. Each holds a 12.5 per cent stake. The heads of the four companies sit on Petronet’s board.
Although Petronet is majority-owned by state-owned oil firms and headed by the government’s top bureaucrat in the Union Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, it is registered as a private limited company. The company is not under the oversight of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India or the Central Vigilance Commission and is outside the scope of the Right to Information Act, according to the report.
Petronet’s board executives have a retirement age of 65 years and receive higher remuneration than executives of public sector undertakings. The four oil companies that hold stakes in Petronet are led by executives who generally retire at 60 years under the public-sector system.
Kumar will assume the Petronet LNG role on May 13, 2027, when Singh’s extended tenure ends. The appointment gives the company a confirmed leadership transition while it continues to pursue additional LNG and petrochemicals capacity.
