MOSCOW (MRC) -- India on Wednesday approved a plan to sell federal government's stake in state-refiner Hindustan Petroleum Corp to explorer Oil and Natural Gas Corp, a source said, in a bid to create oil giants to compete with global rivals, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.
Indian government owns 51.1% stake in HPCL.
"ONGC has forwarded a proposal to acquire HPCL. Process for in-principle approval for this proposal has been initiated," Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan told lawmakers earlier on Wednesday.
As MRC reported earlier, state-owned refiner HPCL is building a new 9 mln tpa refinery-cum-petrochemical complex at Pachpadra in Rajasthan and a petrochemical complex at Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh as part of a Rs 61,000-crore expansion.
Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) is an Indian state-owned oil and natural gas company with its headquarters at Mumbai, Maharashtra and with Navratna status. HPCL has about 25% marketing share in India among PSUs and a strong marketing infrastructure. The Government of India owns 51.11% shares in HPCL and others are distributed amongst financial institutes, public and other investors.
MRC