NEW DELHI: Headed for privatisation, the Board of state-owned Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) on Thursday approved a proposal to buy Oman Oil Company’s stake in the Bina refinery project in the state of Madhya Pradesh.
BPCL holds 63.68 per cent stake in Bharat Oman Refineries Ltd (BORL), which built and operates a 7.8 million tonne oil refinery at Bina in MP. Oman Oil had recently expressed an interest to divest its stake in BORL. The JV had become a subsidiary of BPCL in March this year when it converted warrants into shares, taking the state-owned refiner’s stake in the erstwhile equal joint venture to 63.38 per cent.
According to a statement, the board on Thursday “accorded its approval for acquisition of 88.86 crore (39.62 per cent) of equity shares in Bharat Oman Refineries Ltd from OQ S.A.O.C. (formerly known as Oman Oil Company) subject to finalisation of definitive agreement”.
A proposal to approach the Madhya Pradesh government for acquiring 2.69 crore warrants held by it in BORL was also given the go-ahead. Besides this, BPCL’s Board of Directors also decided to merge wholly-owned subsidiary “Bharat Gas Resources Ltd with BPCL”.
The oil marketing major had first incorporated BGRL as a seperate company in June 2018 for the handling of its natural gas business. Currently, BGRL has won a licence to retail CNG to automobiles and piped natural gas to households and industries in 13 Geographical Areas.