ONGC HPCL Deal

India's top oil and gas producer ONGC has signed term contracts with refiners to sell crude oil it produces from Mumbai offshore fields at a premium to international benchmark Brent, sources said. Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has signed deals to sell about 4.5 million tonne of crude oil each to Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL). The oil has been priced at the prevailing Brent crude oil price plus 1 per cent, company sources said. Brent, the world's best known benchmark for the raw material that is converted into fuels like petrol and diesel in refineries, is trading at USD 80 per barrel. As per the pricing in the term contracts, ONGC would get USD 80 plus USD 0.8 for the oil it will sell to HPCL and BPCL. ONGC produces 13-14 million tonne per annum of crude oil from its fields in the Arabian Sea, off the Mumbai coast. In June last year, the government abolished a rule that said oil from blocks awarded prior to 1999 mus

HPCL continues to list the President of India as its promoter with zero per cent shareholding

ONGC to sell stake in OPaL in Gujarat to fund acquisition of HPCL

The acquisition price of Rs 473.97 per share was finalised on January 20 and the deal was completed as an off-market transaction on January 31 and ONGC is now asking shareholders to ratify it

ONGC said it bought the entire shareholding of the government of India in HPCL at Rs 4.7397 billion per share.

Company should post good results for March quarter led by higher margins in the two businesses

HPCL is now a subsidiary of ONGC and it has been speculated that Surana will lose the chairman's tag

The fact that the government is a major shareholder in ONGC means that really nothing has changed

ONGC and HPCL are two companies that are run on vastly different management styles

Sources said ICICI Bank has extended one-year loan to ONGC to fund the acquisition of government's 51.11% stake in Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL)

This amounts to half of its Rs 369-bn funding requirement for buying government's entire stake in the country's second-largest petroleum retailer

The company is likely to sign-up more loan agreements to pay for acquiring government's 51.11 per cent stake in HPCL for Rs 369.15 billion.

India wants to build bigger oil companies to better compete with global energy giants and withstand oil price volatility

The minister's statement comes after the ONGC announcement on Saturday that a share purchase deal was signed to buy the government stake in HPCL for Rs 369.15 billion

However, ONGC chairman and managing director Shashi Shankar said that borrowing will be the final option before the board to finance the deal

The decision of ONGC will help the Modi govt surpass its disinvestment target of Rs 725 bn for the current fiscal

The deal will be a substantial gain for both the companies in the petrochemical portfolio, says M K Surana

HPCL already has a data room and will give access to the same to ONGC if the seller (government) so desires

Firm plans to close the Rs 32,000-cr deal by December

ONGC has appointed SBI Caps and the Citi Group as its merchant bankers for the deal