Oman Oil seeks to buy 26-per cent stake in BPCL's Bina refinery for $250 million

30 May 2009

Oman Oil Company (OOC), the Gulf nation's national oil company, has sought to increase its 2 per cent stake in Bharat Petroleum Corporation's Bina refinery project to 26 per cent, for about $250 million.

OOC has so far invested Rs75 crore in Bharat Oman Refineries Ltd (BORL), a joint venture with Bharat Petroleum, which is building a six million-tonne-a-year refinery at Bina in Madhya Pradesh, at a cost of Rs10,400 crore.

"We want to increase our equity (in the project) to 25-26 per cent. We are in discussions with BPCL," Omani oil minister Mohammed bin Hamad Al-Rumhy said.

BORL was originally planned as a joint venture in which BPCL and OOC will hold 26 per cent stake each, with the remaining going to the public and strategic investor.

With Oman Oil reluctant to invest in 26 per cent of BORL, BPCL had earlier sought government permission for raising its stake in the project to 50 per cent. BPCL started work on the project in 2006 with a Rs4,000 crore equity funding and Rs6,000 crore of debt.

BPCL sources, however, said while it was still open to the idea of Oman Oil's participation in the joint venture, the equity offer would now be at a premium.