A headhunting committee will hold interviews from Tuesday to select the chairman and managing director of state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corporation. In all, 28 candidates have been called for interviews spread over June 5 and 6, industry sources said.

The Search Committee, headed by Public Enterprise Selection Board chairman N K Sinha, will interview 14 people on June 5. These include acting chairman R S Sharma, ONGC [Get Quote] director (human resource) A K Balyan, director (onshore) A K Hazarika, director (exploration) D K Pande, director (technical services) U N Bose, ONGC Videsh managing director R S Butola and GAIL director (human resource) M R Hingnikar.

Prominent among those who are to appear for the interview the following day include Najeeb Jung, former joint secretary (exploration) in Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, and Prize Petroleum CEO M N Prasad.

This is the second time in a year that interviews are being held for the ONGC top job. The Prime Minister's Office had cancelled the interviews conducted by PESB in August 2006. Butola and Jung appear to be leading the race, sources said.

"Butola had last year dropped out of the interviews at the last moment after being advised by a Cabinet minister. All the other ONGC directors were interviewed and rejected, so they stand slim chance of passing the muster," a source said.

Jung, who resigned from IAS in 1995, had a stint with Asian Development Bank [Get Quote] and was associated with Reliance [Get Quote] Industries-funded Observer Research Foundation. He is presently associated with Oxford University.