Viewpoint: Leadership commitment for safety and sustainability

Hirak Dutta has more than 37 years of experience in process design and engineering, operations, troubleshooting, safety and project management, and human resource management at various refineries for Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. (IOCL). In the initial stage of his career, he commissioned the Mathura refinery, and was technical head of IOCL’s Haldia refinery. Between 2011 and 2015, Mr. Hirak was Executive Director of the Oil Industry Safety Directorate (OISD) under India’s Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas. Mr. Hirak has authored several papers in the area of technical and safety management, is a regular participant at technical, process safety and behavioral functions and has presented papers at several prestigious national and international conferences. Since November 2015, Mr. Hirak has been working at Essar Oil Ltd. as an advisor. He is a chemical engineer by profession.

L. K. Gupta is the Managing Director and CEO of Essar Oil Ltd. (EOL). At 20 MMtpy and a complexity of 11.8, EOL’s Vadinar refinery is the second-largest refinery in India and is one of the most complex refineries in the world. Under Mr. Gupta’s leadership, the performance of EOL has seen a quantum jump. Today, the Vadinar refinery is one of the top-earning refineries in the world, and EOL is the largest private sector fuel retail company in India. Mr. Gupta has 36 years of leadership experience in core sectors across oil and gas, utilities and steel. Before joining EOL, he was Director of finance for Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd., where he was recognized by CNBC as the best-performing CFO in India’s oil and gas sector. Mr. Gupta later became CEO and joint Managing Director of JSW Energy Ltd., where he managed the integrated business of power generation, transmission and trading. Mr. Gupta, a chartered accountant, holds a BCh degree in commerce from Jiwaji University in Gwalior, India.

Shyama Maji is the head of operations of EOL’s refinery at Jamnagar. He is responsible for ensuring smooth and safe operations of all refinery process units, utilities and associated facilities. Has 30 years of experience in the refining business. Mr. Maji joined EOL’s Jamnagar refinery in 2006. Prior to EOL, he worked for 24 years at IOCL. His key strength areas include operations, technical services, process safety and HSEF. Mr. Maji has presented papers on technical and safety management at various conferences. Recently, he participated in the crude and coker panel at AFPM’s 2016 Q&A conference. He holds a chemical engineering degree from Jadavpur University.