Former Indian Oil Corp (IOC) chairman Sanjiv Singh has joined Reliance Industries Ltd as group president for the Mukesh Ambani-run firm’s oil-to-chemicals business.

A communication by RIL executive director Hital R. Meswani to the company employees said Singh, who superannuated from India’s largest oil firm on June 30, will be a member of the leadership team of oil-to-chemicals (O2C) business.

RIL’s O2C business consists of the group’s twin oil refineries at Jamnagar in Gujarat, petrochemical plants, 51 per cent of fuel retail and aviation fuel venture and bulk wholesale marketing businesses. It does not include the firm’s upstream oil and gas exploration assets that include a 66.6 per cent interest in the eastern offshore KG-D6 block.

RIL is in the process of carving out the O2C business into a separate unit, called Reliance O2C Ltd, for a possible sale of a 20 per cent interest to Saudi Aramco for $15 billion.

The firm had earlier this year hired former IOC chairman Sarthak Behuria, 68, as a senior adviser to help shape the firm’s fuel retail business.

“Sanjiv will lead and drive the group manufacturing services (GMS) organisation which is the backbone of our oil-to-chemicals business,” Meswani wrote.

The refining and marketing business of RIL is headed by Meswani.