Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Saturday, Dec 04, 2004
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Saturday, Dec 04, 2004 |
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Corporate
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Mergers & Acquisitions ONGC bids for EnCana oilfields in Ecuador Our Bureau
Mr Subir Raha, CMD
New Delhi , Dec. 3 STATE-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation has bid for acquiring Canadian firm EnCana's stake in a cluster of oilfields in Ecuador. ONGC has also unveiled plans to hike capacity at its subsidiary, Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL), to 15 million tonnes by 2007 at an investment of Rs 2,000 crore, apart from seeking permission to market LPG and kerosene. "We have bid for EnCana oilfields," Mr Subir Raha, Chairman and Managing Director, ONGC, told reporters on the sidelines of the third Petro India conference here on Friday. ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL), the company's overseas arm, has bid for the assets, which include the Canadian firm's stake in Amazon blocks 14, 17 and Tarapoa, having a combined output of 66,891 barrels of oil per day (bpd). OVL is competing with PetroChina for the EnCana assets and is understood to have made a better offer than the Chinese company. EnCana's assets are estimated to be worth $1.5 billion and OVL is believed to have bid slightly more than the stated amount. EnCana owns a 36.26-per cent stake in a new 4,50,000-bpd heavy crude pipeline from the Amazon oil blocks to the Pacific coast, and has reserved space to ship more than 1,08,000 bpd. EnCana also owns a 40-per cent stake in oil block 15, operated by Occidental Petroleum Corp. ONGC has commissioned a detailed feasibility report for hiking the capacity of the 9.69-million tonnes MRPL refinery to 15 million tonnes in two stages, Mr Raha said. The feasibility report for MRPL expansion involving additional units such as FCC, Coker and Indalin (naphtha to LPG plant) will be available in a month. The refinery capacity will first be raised to 12 million tonnes through minor revamps at an investment of Rs 200 crore-Rs 300 crore. After securing licence to retail petrol and diesel, ONGC and MRPL have sought permission from the Government for direct/bulk sale of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and kerosene through the public distribution system as well as non-PDS. "Presentations have been made in this regard to the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, and we hope to secure a permission soon," he said. The company is not keen on selling subsidised LPG to domestic consumers as it will involve setting up a bottling plant. "India is already surplus in bottling capacity and we don't want to create more capacity," Mr Raha said. During 2003-04, MRPL exported 4.262 million tonnes of finished products with a realisation of Rs 4,470 crore, more than doubling the export earnings over the previous year.
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