Oil India aims to acquire 10-15% stake in HPCL's Barmer refinery

NEW DELHI: State-run Oil India Ltd (OIL) has displayed keen interest in acquiring stake in Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd's planned refinery in Rajasthan. This interest came after Vedanta Resources plc and Engineers India Ltd also wanted to buy stake.

OIL wants to buy 10-15% stake in the HPCL refinery, which is likely to be developed near the Barmer oil finds of Cairn India.

HPCL is slated to hold 51% stake in the $4 billion project and state-owned engineering consultancy firm EIL would have 5%.

Vedanta Resources, which last year purchased Cairn India for $8.67 billion, wants to acquire close to 5% stake in the project.

Cairn India, which has 70% stake in the Barmer oilfields, presently manufactures 175,000 barrels per day of oil (8.75 million tonnes a year) from the Rajasthan fields and also has plans to raise it to 300,000 bpd (15 million tonnes).