Engineers India and Oil India to bid for 61.6% stake in Numaligarh Refinery

Oil India Limited (OIL) on Thursday said it has decided to bid for acquiring 61.65 per cent stake of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) in Numaligarh Refinery Limited (NRL) in consortium with Engineers India Limited (EIL).

The bid will be submitted through a formal process. ElL will take the minority stakeholding in the consortium.

“The exact percentage of the stake of OIL and EIL will depend on the extent of right of first offer (ROFO) to be exercised by government of Assam which already holds 12.35 per cent stake in NRL,” Oil India said in a stock exchange filing

NRL is the largest customer of OIL’s crude produced from its North Eastern fields.

“The acquisition is expected to improve the synergy in OIL’s portfolio,” the company said.

“This would enable in diversifying the business into downstream oil and gas operations,” EIL said in a seperate filing.

For the quarter ended December 2020, the company reported a Rs 889.69 crore consolidated profit, up 25 per cent higher from Rs 709.39 crore bottom line reported by the company in the same quarter a year earlier.

Crude oil production in the December quarter has remained flat at 0.748 million tonne. Meanwhile natural gas production for the quarter has marginally reduced to 673 million standard cubic meters (MMSCM).

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