The Hindu Business Line : HPCL in talks with Shell for stake in Hazira terminal

MR M.B. LAL, Chairman and Managing Director of Managing Director of HPCL, said the company was in advanced stage of talks with Shell India for acquiring stake in the latter's Hazira LNG terminal in Gujarat. On the sidelines of the press conference to announce the signing of the MoU with GAIL (India), Mr Lal told mediapersons, "We are talking to them for picking up stake in Hazira. The picture will be clear by January and a deal is possible by the end of this fiscal."

HPCL was in talks with Shell for the equity but there were various issues such as valuation of the stake and the LNG supply that needed to be looked into, he said.

The company was looking at acquiring a 25-per cent stake in the terminal. While refusing to specify the percentage the company was looking at, Mr Lal said it was a good opportunity for HPCL, as it did not have a presence in the LNG business so far.

Indications are that Shell is unlikely to offload more than 25 per cent since its own equity will then fall to less than 51 per cent.

Shell had started marketing LNG from the Hazira terminal earlier this year but has so far found few takers on account of the high price. The terminal has a capacity of 2.5 million tonnes per annum but is currently being under-utilised because of lack of customers.

On whether GAIL (India) Ltd had approached Shell, the GAIL Chairman said they had also approached Shell for picking up a stake in Hazira but received no response from the multinational energy major.

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