BRPL to be merged with Indian Oil

The board of Indian Oil Corp (IOC) today approved merger of its subsidiary Bongaigaon Refinery and Petrochemicals (BRPL) with itself and cleared an investment of Rs 806 crore for expanding its Panipat Refinery to 15 million tonnes.

IOC, which holds 74.46% stake in BRPL, will offer its equity shares to BRPL shareholders in a proportion to be decided by advisors of the merger, a senior company official said.

The merger decision has now to be ratified by the board of BRPL after which IOC would initiate the process of appointment of financial and legal advisors for the merger.

The company had previously decided to merge its fuel retailing subsidiary IBP Co. The merger is currently pending with the government.

BRPL owns a 2.35 million tonnes per annum refinery in Assam and petrochemical units.

The board of IOC at its meeting today also cleared expanding capacity of Panipat Refinery to 15 million tonnes per annum and raising the capacity of the Mundra-Panipat pipeline to 9 million tonnes from the current 6 million tonnes at an estimated cost of Rs 200 crore.

IOC, which currently has seven refineries with a combined installed capacity of 41.35 million tonnes per annum, will complete doubling of Panipat Refinery capacity from 6 to 12 million tonnes by October this year.