Change Agent

On March 31, 2016, the day before Mukesh Kumar Surana took over as the Chairman and Managing Director of Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL), the Indian cricket team lost a semi-final match to West Indies in the Twenty20 World Cup. India’s journey in the tournament had ended but Surana was drawing up a mid-term strategy for HPCL, naming it Twenty20. One of the aims was to get the oil refining and marketing company Maharatna status.

The criteria for Maharatna status includes a three-year record of annual net profit of over ₹5,000 crore, net worth of ₹15,000 crore-plus and turnover of at least ₹25,000 crore. Among these, HPCL was lagging only in profitability, which was difficult to achieve without increasing the standalone capacity. Surana, therefore, worked towards enhancing crude processing volumes, margins and efficiencies. In the first year itself, the standalone profit of HPCL