Essar Oil today announced the appointment of Manish Maheshwari as chief executive officer (CEO), exploration & production. With around 23 years of experience, Maheshwari till recently was the managing director of Hindustan Oil Exploration Company.

Manish Maheshwari would be responsible for Essar's entire E&P business, which includes 15 blocks and fields in various stages of exploration and production in India, Indonesia, Madagascar, Nigeria and Vietnam. The total reserves and resources across these assets is estimated to be 2,034 mmboe. Essar's development and production assets include the Raniganj CBM Block in West Bengal, Ratna& R Series in Mumbai Offshore, and the Mehsana Block in Gujarat. At Raniganj, the current gas production is about 300,000 standard cubic metres per day (scm/d), which shall ramp up to 3 million scm/d. The Company has drilled 230 wells and laid requisite infrastructure including pipelines to supply CBM Gas to end consumers.

At HOEC, Maheshwari led the initiative to induct strategic partners in the company, ensuring smooth transition of strategic shareholders, involving both major & independent international oil & gas players, executing development projects in a safe, time efficient and cost effective manner and positioning the company on a multifold increase in production. He previously served as investment manager in a Danish Investment Fund where he developed strategy for investments in East European Countries aligned to promoting Scandinavian companies interest. Before moving to Denmark, he spent approx.12 years with companies like Tata Industries and Hindustan Unilever. Maheshwari holds a Bachelor (Hons.) degree in Chemical Engineering and Masters in Business Administration from Strathclyde University, U.K.

Shares of the company declined Rs 4.2, or 4.19%, to settle at Rs 95.95. The total volume of shares traded was 350,570 at the BSE (Monday).