Five offers for Petronet-India equity in oil pipelines
Three state-owned and two private domestic oil companies have submitted Expressions of Interest for Petronet-Indias stake in three petroleum product pipelines.
In February this year, Petronet-India sent letters to likely buyers and released advertisements a month later inviting EOIs by 10th April as part of its liquidation process. On offer are the company itself, and its 26% equity in three product pipelines: Vadinar to Kandla; Kochi to Coimbatore through Karur; and Mangalore to Bangalore through Hassan.
PETROWATCH learns five serious offers were received by the 10th April deadline. Reliance wants to buy Petronets stake in all three pipelines; GAIL wants to buy the company itself and its stakes in all three pipelines; Hindustan Petroleum wants the Petronet-India stake in the Mangalore to Bangalore pipeline; Bharat Petroleum wants the stake in the Kochi to Coimbatore pipeline; and Essar wants the stake in all three pipelines.
Surprisingly, Indian Oil is not interested in any of the pipelines, even though its director pipelines AM Uplenchwar is the present chairman of Petronet-India. See below details of the three pipelines on offer.
Pipeline Length Commissioning Cost Liabilities Capacity Diameter Usage in 2004-05 Vadinar-Kandla 100 km May 2000 Rs360cr Rs100cr 10m t/y 24-inches 2m tonnes Kochi-Coimbatore 292 km March 2003 Rs370cr Rs230cr 3.3m t/y 18-inches 1.2m tonnes Mangalore-Bangalore 364 km August 2003 Rs640cr Rs540cr 5.6m t/y 20-inches 1.25m tonnes