BPCL to sell entire stake in Numaligarh Refinery for Rs 9,880 cr

BPCL will sell its 61.65% holding in Numaligarh Refinery to a consortium of Oil India and Engineers India and may also include the state govt of Assam

State-run Bharat Petroleum Corp. will offload its holding in its unit Numaligarh Refinery Ltd. for Rs 9,878 crore ($1.3 billion) as part of its own privatization process.

The country's second-biggest state refiner will sell its 61.65% holding in Numaligarh Refinery to a consortium of Oil India Ltd. and Engineers India Ltd. and may also include the state government of Assam, according to an exchange filing. The final sale pact will be entered into after obtaining clearances from its shareholders, Bharat Petroleum said.

Oil India currently holds 26% in Numaligarh Refinery Ltd., which operates a 3 million-tons-a-year oil refinery in Assam. The refinery is being expanded threefold to meet the region’s growing fuel demand. Assam state government owns 12.35% in the company.

The deal will help the federal government push forward with the sale of its own holding in Bharat Petroleum in potentially the country’s biggest asset sale. India is targeting to complete the sale by September.

India is speeding up the privatization of state-owned assets to help plug the budget gap. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration is targeting to raise Rs 1.75 trillion from the sale of assets in the year that starts April.