BPCL board approves buying out Oman Oil's stake in Bina refinery

Privatisation-bound Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) on Thursday said its board has approved buying out Oman Oil Company's stake in the Bina refinery project in Madhya Pradesh on mutually agreeable terms.

The BPCL board at its meeting on Thursday also approved merging Bharat Gas Resources Ltd (BGRL) with itself, the company said in a filing to the stock exchanges.

BPCL holds 63.68 per cent stake in Bharat Oman Refineries Ltd (BORL), which built and operates a 7.8 million tonne oil refinery at Bina in Madhya Pradesh.

The board "accorded its approval for acquisition of 88.86 crore (39.62 per cent) of equity shares in Bharat Oman Refineries Ltd from OQ S.A.O.C. (formerly known as Oman Oil Company) subject to finalisation of definitive agreement between parties," it said.

The board also approved a proposal to approach the Madhya Pradesh government for acquiring 2.69 crore warrants held by it in BORL.

BPCL said BORL was incorporated in February 1994.

Besides, the meeting approved "merger of Bharat Gas Resources Ltd (a wholly-owned subsidiary of BPCL) with BPCL," the filing said.

BPCL incorporated BGRL for handling the natural gas business in June 2018. It won licence to retail CNG to automobiles and piped natural gas to households and industries in 13 Geographical Areas under round 9 and round 10 of City Gas Distribution (CGD).

BGRL is also planning to put up an LNG import terminal along the east coast of India.

Oman Oil had recently expressed interest to divest its stake in BORL.

BORL became a subsidiary of BPCL in March this year when it converted warrants into shares, taking the state-owned refiner's stake in the erstwhile equal joint venture to 63.38 per cent.

In addition to the equity investment in BORL, BPCL had subscribed to zero per cent compulsorily convertible debentures of Rs 1,000 crore and share warrants of Rs 1,585.68 crore, which on conversion would turn BORL into a subsidiary of BPCL.