Pomila Jaspal has on Tuesday shattered the glass ceiling, becoming the first woman Director (Finance) of India's top oil and gas producer ONGC, the firm said.

Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) now has an unprecedented two women executive directors - Alka Mittal is the acting chairperson and managing director as well as director (human resource) at the firm.

The oil and gas PSUs under the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas now have three women at the top - Vartika Shukla is the chairperson and managing director of Engineers India Ltd (EIL). "Pomila Jaspal has taken over as Director (Finance) of ONGC on April 19, 2022," the PSU said in a statement.

Prior to this, she served as Director (Finance) in Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL), a subsidiary of ONGC. She has also served as a director on the board of ONGC Mangalore Petrochemicals Limited (OMPL), Petronet Mangalore Hassan Bangalore Limited (PMHBL) and ONGC Petro additions Limited (OPaL).

Jaspal, 58, is a fellow member and gold medalist of the Institute of Cost Accountants of India. She replaces Subhash Kumar, who superannuated at the end of last year.

She was picked for the job by government headhunter PESB in December last year and has now taken over after her appointment was approved by the Cabinet Committee on Appointments.

"She has 36 years of experience across varied segments of the oil & gas industry, encompassing operating, regulatory and policy aspects of upstream and downstream industry. She was instrumental in the merger of OMPL with MRPL, paving the way for synergy and integration benefits for the ONGC Group," the statement said.

Jaspal joined ONGC in 1985 as a finance and accounts officer and rose to the position of executive director, chief corporate finance where she handled varied assignments, including corporate finance functions such as direct tax, indirect tax, investor relations, corporate budget and project appraisal.

Besides working in ONGC Videsh Ltd where she handled finance of various assets like Sakhalin, South Sudan, Kazakhstan, and Colombia and steered the buyout of Azerbaijan Asset, she also worked at the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) - the regulatory arm of the ministry in its formative years and was instrumental in developing the model production sharing contracts (PSC), the statement said.

"Jaspal also worked in the Contract Cell of the ministry, with exposure to different areas of gas pricing, gas utilisation policy, and formulation of policies for smooth implementation of PSCs and monitoring the royalty and profit petroleum," it added.