Raghaw Sharan Pandey Friday took over as the new Petroleum Secretary setting for himself the task of balancing the interests of consumers, the government and oil companies in the wake of high crude oil prices.

Pandey, who prior to this was Secretary in the Ministry of Steel, replaced sharp and quick-witted M S Srinivasan who retired from government service on achieving the age of superannuation Thursday.

"High oil prices have thrown us the challenge of maintaining the health of our Navratna oil companies while at the same time safeguarding government's revenues and overall economic interest as well as providing consumers with affordable fuel," the 1972-batch IAS officer from the Nagaland cadre said, indicating he had done his homework.

"The sector faces serious challenges (and) he (Pandey) is already on the job," Deora said in an apparent reference to a prior meeting he had had with Pandey including the luncheon meeting yesterday where the outgoing secretary and Sunderasan joined in the 'baton-passing' exercise. 

Pandey, who has 18-months at the helm of the oil ministry before he retires on January 31, 2010, said that the sector contributed 15 percent of the GDP and Central and state exchequers depended heavily on revenues from the sector.

Demand-supply issues, augmenting production from domestic as well as overseas fields and removing inefficiencies were the other issues that he said he wanted to address.