Vaidya takes over as IOC’s director of refineries
Shrikant Madhav Vaidya has taken over as the director (Refineries) of Indian Oil Corp. (IOC), India’s highest-ranked public sector enterprise in the ‘Fortune 500’ global listing. He is also a director on the board of Chennai Petroleum Corporation Ltd. (CPCL) and the 60 million tonnes per annum (MMTPA) West Coast Refinery and Petrochemicals Project, the world’s largest grassroots refinery project, coming up in Maharashtra, India.
Vaidya now spearheads the business and operations of nine refineries and petrochemical plants of IOC. With a robust refineries division, IOC, including its group of companies, remains the nation’s top refiner with a group refining capacity of 80.7 million tonnes per annum or 161.4 million barrels per day (bpd).
A chemical engineer from the National Institute of Technology, Rourkela, Vaidya has 33 years of extensive experience in refining and petrochemicals operations. Vaidya has had a decade-long association with India’s largest cracker plant — the Panipat Naphtha Cracker Complex — right from its commissioning stage, which is one of the major drivers of IOC’s petrochemicals business. He is among the select technocrats in the Indian oil and gas industry, who is proficient in all facets of refinery-petrochemicals integration, desirable for the sustainability of the oil and gas industry in the long-term.
Prior to his appointment, Vaidya was the head of the operations department of IOC’s Refineries Division, ensuring healthy gross refining margins, the smooth supply of products and eco-friendly business operations. During his tenure, the Refineries Division registered a record performance on all major physical parameters. He also steered the timely roll-out of Bharat Stage VI (BS-VI) grade auto fuels in India’s national capital region (NCR) and has expanded green energy options with bio-fuel and ethanol-blended fuel-related projects in refineries. Vaidya has also lead IOC’s eight MMTPA Mathura Refinery, and his dynamic tenure saw the introduction of innovative initiatives for greater sustainability and profitability.
With a strong technological prowess, business acumen and people-centric leadership style, Vaidya nurtures a strong vision of leveraging technology, innovative and sustainable solutions for the company’s transformation into an integrated energy major.
