Caltex Invests Rs 22cr In Haldia Lpg Unit

Even as its Indian partner awaits government approval for putting in its equity for the project, American oil major Caltex has already pumped in 75 per cent of its equity into the proposed joint venture project with IBP for setting up a Rs 175 crore liquefied petroleum gas terminal at Haldia.

According to sources at IBP, the clearance is expected any day now. The US-based oil company has already shelled out as much as Rs 22 crore out of the Rs 29.7 crore equity it holds, which is 51 per cent of the equity. The total equity comes to about Rs 58.3 crore.

Meanwhile, IBP Caltex has shortlisted 20 firms, both domestic and international, for engineering- procurement-construction contracts on a turnkey basis. Company officials point out that the final bidder will be decided upon by April this year, so that work can commence by monsoon. However, company sources declined from commenting upon the identity of the bidders.

The promoters are also negotiating with domestic and foreign institutions for the debt component of the project cost, which is around Rs 116.6 crore. The debt is expected to be a judicious mix of dollar and rupee components, and the promoters are hoping to tap it at the best possible rates.

The LPG terminal project was mooted about a year and a half back. Senior officials are bullish about the utility of setting up this terminal because both Indian Oil and Bharat Petroleum are setting up LPG bottling plants in the vicinity of the project site.

The proposed terminal has an installed capacity of 18,000 tonnes and is expected to handle an estimated 2 lakh tonnes of LPG per year.

Meanwhile, IBP has been receiving feelers from many multinational oil companies as well as domestic giants such as Reliance and Essar for possible buy out of divested stake, if and when the government sheds its equity further from the current 51 per cent, as suggested by the Disinvestment Commission recently. However, according to the chairman-cum-managing director S N Mathur, it is too far fetched to consider who would be buying out the stake, as no decision has been taken by the government for further disinvestment in the company.

"Anyway, if the government so decides, the stake- picking will done through a transparent bidding process", Mathur told Business Standard.

Sources feel that there are at least four multinational companies (Caltex, Mobil, Shell and Esso) who have a presence in the country through their joint ventures in the lubes segment, waiting for the oil sector to open up.