Friday, January 19, 2007

Petroleos De Venezuela may buy big stake in MRPL refinery

Venezuela’s state-run oil company Petroleos De Venezuela SA (PDVSA) is looking to acquire a major equity stake in MRPL’s existing refinery as well as the 15 mmtpa refinery proposed to be set up in the Mangalore SEZ. Additionally, the company is seeking to pick up stakes in the discovered and producing assets of ONGC in India and abroad.

In MRPL, ONGC holds a majority stake of 71.62%, while HPCL holds 16.97% and is seeking to enhance its stake in MRPL to over 26%. Besides monetary considerations and offering them equity in their rich oil fields in Venezuela, PDVSA may enter into crude supply and product off-take arrangements with ONGC. PDVSA's business development unit Corporacion Venezulana de Petroleo (Venezuelan Petroleum Corporation) will be negotiating the stake deal with the Indian government and ONGC.

PDVSA is also in negotiations with OVL, the overseas arm of ONGC, to offer a 30% stake in the San Cristobal block. The company is in the process of procuring certification for the reserves in the block, which may take another 18 months. Preliminary estimates of the in-place reserves are 1.3 trn barrels of oil. The oil found is heavy and only 20%, or 235 bn barrels, is recoverable.

Read The Economic Times article.

No comments: