India-born billionaire Lakshmi N Mittal is eyeing stake in two more new refineries being set up at Bina in Madhya Pradesh and Vishakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh.
NEW DELHI: Close on the heels of acquiring 49 per cent stake in HPCL's Bhatinda refinery, India-born billionaire Lakshmi N Mittal is eyeing stake in two more new refineries being set up at Bina in Madhya Pradesh and Vishakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh.
Mittal is in talks to take 20 per cent stake in state-run Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd's Rs 9,100 crore, six million tons a year Bina refinery that is to be commissioned by 2010-11, industry sources said.
The steel tycoon is also talking to another public sector firm Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd for a stake in its proposed greenfield nine million tons refinery-cum-petrochemical complex at Vishakhapatnam.
HPCL is also talking to France's Total, state-run gas firm GAIL (India) and explorer Oil India Ltd for a possible four-way partnership in the Rs 25,000-30,000 crore project.
"Total was already talking to HPCL for a stake in the state-run firm's planned doubling of capacity of the existing refinery at Vizag to 15 million tons. HPCL it seems has abandoned the Vizag expansion and is now planning the new refinery-cum-petrochemical complex in the country's first Petroleum, Chemical and Petrochemical Investment Region (PCPIR)," a source said.
Singapore-based Mittal Energy Investments Pvt Ltd, a subsidiary of Mittal Investment - the holding company of LN Mittal, recently took 49 per cent stake in HPCL's nine million tons Bhatinda refinery in Punjab. The Rs 18,919 crore Bhatinda refinery is scheduled to be commissioned by 2011.
"Mittal is very keen on getting into the oil and gas space. He first tied-up with Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) for acquiring oil and gas properties and now is entering into ventures with other state-run firms for refinery business," the source said.
Talks with BPCL and HPCL were at a preliminary stage and a firm investment decision was not expected before October.
While BPCL has already placed orders for most of the equipments for the Bina refinery, HPCL Board has approved acquisition of 1,500 acres of land in the PCPIR for the Visakhapatnam project.
The Visakhapatnam project would house a nine million tons refinery and a petrochemical complex encompassing aromatic complex and naphtha cracker to produce value added products.
The Aromatics complex may include the production of paraxylene, benzene, PTA and LAB in a phased manner while the naphtha cracker would be for production of ethylene, propylene, polyethylene, polypropylene and styrene.
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