Ratnagiri refinery: Pradhan says open to offer majority stake

Petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan has said the government is open to Saudi oil giant Aramco's interest to own majority stake in the proposed Rs 3-trillion refinery at Ratnagiri, which when completed will be the largest single location refinery complex in the world with a capacity of 60 million tonne.

Saudi Aramco has reportedly sought majority ownership in the mega refinery-cum-petrochemical complex for which state-owned oil firms Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum have inked an agreement.

"Aramco is in discussions with us. We have held many rounds of talks on the Ratnagiri project with them. It's a commercial project and we are open to their suggestion (of giving majority stake)," Pradhan told PTI here over the weekend.

The minister was responding to a question on whether the world's largest oil company that is working on a USD 1-trillion initial public float this year, has really sought majority stake in the project.

Some media reports had last month said the Saudis were interested in the USD 40-billion project provided India was ready to offer majority control and that the facility will mostly use Saudi crude.

When specifically asked whether the government was ready to offer majority stake in the project, Pradhan said "yes", though did not quantify their demand.

"Yes it's a commercial project and the ownership is still open," said the minister.

IOC currently owns a 50 per cent stake in the project, with the remainder is equally split between BPCL and HPCL.

When asked about the status of the Ratnagiri refinery, especially land procurement in the face of stiff opposition from the public as well as the ruling BJP ally Shiv Sena, Pradhan said, "I am optimistic that everything can be resolved through discussions. Every issue can be discussed and resolved with talks. Let's see."