Indian Oil Corp acquires 5% stake in IEX subsidiary Indian Gas Exchange

State-owned Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) on Tuesday said it has acquired a nearly 5 per cent stake in Indian Gas Exchange Ltd - the country's first automated national level exchange for the trading of natural gas.

IOC joins the likes of oil and gas explorer ONGC, gas utility GAIL Torrent Gas Pvt Ltd and Adani Total Gas Ltd which already have acquired 5 per cent equity each in IGX.

"It is hereby informed that the Board of IndianOil at its meeting held on December 20, 2021 has accorded approval for the acquisition of 36,93,750 equity shares of the face value of Rs 10 each equivalent to 4.93 per cent of the share capital in Indian Gas Exchange Limited (IGX)," IOC said in an exchange filing.

At face value, the acquisition will cost IOC Rs 3.7 crore.

IGX is India's first automated national level gas exchange, which ensures transparent price discovery in natural gas and facilitates the growth of natural gas in India's energy basket, it added.

IOC, the nation's largest oil refining and fuel marketing firm, said the acquisition of an equity stake in IGX is a strategic opportunity for it to become part of India's natural gas market and to increase its presence to achieve a leadership position in the market.

IGX is envisaged to play an important role to facilitate achieving the government's target of increasing the share of natural gas in India's energy basket from the current 6.5 per cent to 15 per cent by 2030.

The exchange started operations on June 15, 2020, as a gas trading platform and has been operating as the Gas Exchange since December 2020. The Exchange operates under the regulatory framework of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB).

In a separate filing, IOC said its board has approved an investment of Rs 9,028 crore for laying a crude oil pipeline from Mundra in Gujarat to Panipat in Haryana.

The pipeline will have a capacity to transport 17.5 million tonnes of imported crude oil per annum from the Gujarat port to its refinery in Haryana.

"The project will meet the enhanced crude oil requirement arising out of the capacity expansion of Panipat refinery from 15 million tonnes per annum to 25 million tonnes," it said.

The project is expected to be completed within 36 months and would be synchronized with the commissioning of the Panipat refinery expansion project, it added.

Panipat is one of the 10 refineries that IOC owns and operates.

IOC's 10 refineries have a total capacity of 80.20 million tonnes or roughly 32 per cent of the nation's total refining capacity of 249.4 million tonnes.