Industry & Economy
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Petroleum
Govt likely to expand Vizag, Paradip refineries' capacity
Our Bureau
New Delhi
,
April 1
THE Petroleum Minister, Mr Mani Shankar Aiyar, has said that the Government would examine the prospects of expanding the capacity of HPCL's Visakhapatnam refinery and the proposed IOC refinery at Paradip for bringing in Saudi Aramco as equity partner.
Speaking to newspersons today, he said that HPCL's 7.5-million-tonne Visakhapatnam refinery might be upgraded to make it an export-oriented refinery.
The Minister, who has just returned from a trip to Saudi Arabia, said: "Saudi Arabia is keen on setting up commercial crude oil reserves in India in partnership with IOC."
On March 30, the Minister had said in a teleconference from Saudi Arabia that Saudi Aramco was likely to pick up stake in the Visakhapatnam refinery as part of a cross-investment plan where it will get equity in Aramco's upcoming refinery at Yanbu, on the Red Sea coast.
Saudi Arabia has offered HPCL a stake in the Yanbu Refinery and has invited Indian companies to bid for a gas block that it proposes to auction by the year-end.
On the issue of the extent of equity stake to be offered to Saudi Aramco and whether it would be in the form of a new company or in the existing HPCL, the Minister said that the commercial issues were still being worked out.
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