Oman Oil to Enhance Stake in Bina Refinery, Ready to Pay $ 250
Oman Oil Company is eventually showing interest in enhancing its stake in Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd’s Bina refinery project after some initial hesitation. The company will hike the stake to 26 per cent and is ready to pay $250 million for the same
OOC, the oil-rich Gulf nation’s national oil company, has already invested Rs 75 crore for a two per cent stake in Bharat Oman Refineries Ltd, which is the company that is building the six million-tonnes-a-year refinery at Bina in Madhya Pradesh at a cost of Rs 10,400 crore.
“We want to increase our equity (in the project) to 25-26 per cent. We are in discussions with BPCL,” Oman Oil Minister Mohammed bin Hamad Al-Rumhy told reporters here.
Bina refinery project was originally mooted in 1994 with BPCL and OOC having 26 per cent stake each and the rest going to public and strategic investor.
However, OOC did not make any equity contribution beyond Rs 75 crore and asked BPCL to convert it into equity which came to about two per cent in the revised project cost.
The reluctance of OOC forced BPCL to go to the Government for allowing it to raise its stake in the project up to 50 per cent and construction began in 2006.
The project is to be funded by Rs 4,000 crore equity and Rs 6,400 crore debt.
