M A Pathan, former chairman of the Indian Oil Corporation, on Friday resigned as chief of the Petroleum Federation of India, citing his pre-occupation with Tatas and other multinational oil firms.

Pathan, who was the prime mover behind the formation of PetroFed as an association of the oil industry, tendered his resignation at a meeting of the governing council of the organisation in New Delhi.

The governing council elected Sarthak Behuria, chairman and managing director, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd, as chairman of PetroFed, official sources said.

After his retirement from IOC, Pathan was appointed resident director of the Tata Group and was also believed to be advising multinational oil firms Royal/Dutch Shell, Petronas of Malaysia and Saudi Aramco of Saudi Arabia.

The official reason given by Pathan for his resignation from PetroFed was that he was "finding it difficult to devote the required attention to the increasing demands of PetroFed activities."

Interestingly, S K Bansal, a close associate of Pathan, also resigned as director general of PetroFed. Bansal cited his pre-occupation with his parent company IBP, where he is a general manager, as the reason for his resignation.

Sources said the governing council appointed A K Arora, former director (refineries) of IOC, as full time director general of PetroFed.

Both the appointments would take effect from August 3, 2003.