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Indian Oil, BPCL and HPCL may hold 51% stake in Maharashtra refinery

Indian Oil Corp. Ltd (IOCL), Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corp. Ltd (HPCL) may jointly hold a 51% stake in a large refinery and petrochemical complex proposed to come up in coastal Maharashtra, two people familiar with the development said.The state government and a strategic investor who is yet to be brought in will hold the rest.

The 60 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) refinery will be built at Rs.1.5 trillion in two phases of 40 mtpa and 20 mtpa. The oil marketing companies (OMCs) will form a special purpose vehicle (SPV) for the project, oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan had said on 6 June.The three OMCs would be holding a 51% stake between them. The Maharashtra government may also be an equity partner, and hold up to a 5% stake, with the rest going to the strategic investor. Usually in such ventures, state governments take a token stake,” said an investment banker, one of the two people mentioned above, who did not want to be identified.

“The refinery would be an SPV-like an entity, with some new marketing network. The primary structure has been formed and we have offered the refinery to Saudi Aramco as a prospective partner. Maharashtra government is also a partner in this project. They have found the land for us and our technical team is looking into the details of that,” Pradhan had said. Emails sent to the three OMCs and Saudi Aramco went unanswered.&a