The government has no immediate plans to merge other state-owned oil companies besides the sale of its entire 51.11 percent stake in Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd. to Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd. that is already underway.
There is no plan to merge Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. with Oil India Ltd. or Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd. with GAIL India Ltd., a senior oil ministry official told BloombergQuint.
Two separate news reports in the Economic Times had suggested that the government is looking at merging these companies.
Last month, the Union Cabinet Finance had given its in-principle approval for the merger of ONGC and HPCL. This followed the government's proposal in Union Budget 2017-18 to create an integrated “oil major” to help meet the country's growing energy demand. The ONGC-HPCL merger would be completed by the end of this fiscal year, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan had said, following which MRPL will be merged with HPCL.
“We are definitely open to evaluate such opportunities in detail once this is offered to us,” Sanjiv Singh, Chairman of IOC told BloombergQuint.
Essential Business Intelligence, Sharp Market Insights, Practical Personal Finance Advice, Daily Fuel, Gold and Silver Prices and Latest Stories — On NDTV Profit.
