No more 'stand-alone' refineries in India
The following four refineries used to be called 'stand-alone refineries' because they have no independent marketing network of their own.
Chennai Petroleum Corporation(Tamil Nadu) Bongaigaon Refineries & Petrochemicals(Assam) Kochi Refinery (Kerala) Numaligarh Refineries (Assam) No longer. Today, Chennai Petroleum's 6.5m t/y refinery at Manali in Tamil Nadu and the 2.35m t/y Bongaigaon refinery in Assam have a new master: Indian Oil Corporation.
Their formal assimilation as Indian Oil subsidiaries happened on 27th March at a ceremony in Delhi when Indian Oilhanded over a cheque for Rs658cr ($144.76m) to oil minister Ram Naik as payment for the government's 51.81% stake in Chennai Petroleum and its 74.46% stake in the Bongaigaon refinery. An oil ministry press note said Indian Oil - which has no refinery in southern India - has been marketing Chennai Petroleum's oil products for the past thirty years.
Indian Oil has also been selling products from the Bongaigaon refinery. Bharat Petroleum has also acquired two new subsidiaries.
On 21st March Bharat Petroleum handed over a cheque for Rs659cr ($144.98m) to Naik for it purchase of the government's 55.04% stake in the 7.5m t/y Cochi refinery in Kerala. Bharat Petroleum will pay IBP Petroleum Rs172cr ($37.84m) for its 19% stake in the Numaligarh refinery in northeast India, giving it majority control with 51%.
Numaligarh refinery began production in October last year.
