Kolkata: Deepali Masirkar, a 2008-batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer from the Nagaland cadre, has taken over as executive director (security) at the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) Ltd. She was serving as director, Ministry of Tribal Affairs, before her present posting.
As chief of security, she will play a crucial role in safeguarding India’s vital energy infrastructure, which involves protecting ONGC’s offshore and onshore assets.
Masirkar has vast experience, spanning law enforcement, security administration, public policy and governance.
“An alumna of St. Francis College, Hyderabad, Mumbai University and the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), she holds degrees in Science and Law, alongside a Master’s in Public Administration in International Political Economy,” ONGC has said.
While serving in Nagaland, she rose to the rank of deputy inspector general. Thereafter, she served as a deputy commissioner of police in Nagpur and Mumbai, overseeing law and order, criminal investigations, economic offences and cybercrime.
Masirkar has also served as a director in the Election Commission of India, where she contributed to election planning, accessibility and inclusion, and the successful conduct of the 2024 Parliamentary Elections.
Her role involved coordinating with the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) deployed during the elections.
“Bringing together operational expertise, administrative insight and a deep understanding of institutional governance, she is poised to strengthen ONGC’s security architecture and reinforce the resilience of its people, assets and critical energy infrastructure,” the PSU has said.
Asset and infrastructure protection is among the primary roles of the ED (Security). She will be overseeing the security of ONGC’s vast and dispersed network of oil and gas fields, production facilities, pipelines, offshore platforms, and corporate offices.
She will also have to ensure that potential threats, disruptions, or law-and-order issues do not interrupt continuous energy exploration and production operations.
For this, she will have to coordinate with government and defence agencies, acting as the primary liaison between ONGC and external law enforcement, intelligence agencies, CAPFs, and state and central government authorities.
She will also be formulating enterprise-wide security strategies, conducting vulnerability assessments, and managing crisis response protocols.
Masirkar will also direct physical security frameworks, access control systems, emergency preparedness, and personnel safety guidelines across all operational zones.
It will be an onerous task, given the vast number of exploration, production and processing assets that ONGC has. Its domestic offshore assets include the Mumbai High Complex, Neelam and Heera Fields, Bassein and Satellite Fields, and the Krishna-Godavari and Cauvery basin blocks.
ONGC also has 13 onshore crude oil and natural gas producing assets, including those at Mehsana, Assam, Tripura and Rajahmundry.
Apart from this, ONGC holds stakes in overseas exploration and production projects in 14-15 countries.
–IANS–
