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ONGC's plan to merge MRPL with HPCL may have to wait till FY24
By Subhash Narayan
New Delhi, Jan 17 (IANS) State-run oil and gas explorer ONGC's plan to complete the merger of its refining subsidiary MRPL with recently acquired HPCL to align its upstream and downstream operations into two verticals has got delayed.
The process is now expected to be completed by FY24 as ONGC has decided to consolidate its refining and petrochemicals business around MRPL first before pushing for its merger.
Sources said that the process of merging ONGC's two oil refining subsidiaries, Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) and Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL), will start only after the company completes merging ONGC Mangalore Petrochemical Ltd (OMPL) with MRPL.
"The merger (HPCL and MRPL) under conservative assumptions could happen by FY24-end as the MRPL-OMPL merger has to happen first and that business should continue for five years with FY19-end as the effective date of their merger at the least," company officials privy to the development said.
Under the plan, MRPL may become a subsidiary of HPCL first. Under liberal assumptions, the merger could start in 1-2 years as OMPL gets merged with MRPL by then. OMPL has now become a 100 per cent subsidiary of MRPL.
The board of MRPL on October 19 last year had approved the acquisition of 49 per cent stake in OMPL from ONGC. This had paved the way for merging OMPL with MRPL. Once this is done, the next stage of merging MRPL with HPCL will begin.
OMPL, a subsidiary of MRPL, is a joint venture between ONGC and MRPL, set up for value addition of excess naphtha and aromatic streams available from the MRPL refinery. The complex is the largest single stream unit in Asia, producing 914 KTPA Para-xylene and 283 KTPA Benzene.
MRPL is a subsidiary of ONGC and schedule 'A' Miniratna, Central Public Sector Enterprise (CPSE), under the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas. As on December 31, 2020, ONGC held 71.63 per cent and HPCL held 16.96 per cent stake in MRPL.
(Subhash Narayan can be contacted at subhash.n@ians.in)
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Petrol, diesel prices steady even as crude boils
New Delhi, March 6 (IANS) Oil marketing companies have spared consumers of yet another petrol and diesel price hike even though the global oil market is on the boil with crude reaching within touching distance of year-high-level of $70 a barrel.
Petrol continues to be priced at Rs 91.17 a litre and diesel Rs 81.47 a litre in the capital on Saturday. Across the country too, the petrol and diesel price remained unchanged.
This is seventh consecutive day when pump prices of auto fuels have remains unchanged.
After a spike in global oil prices seen over last two weeks with crude price jumping close to $67 a barrel, prices had fallen to around $63 a barrel but it rose again to cross $69 a barrel mark now after after the OPEC+ decision to continue with crude production cut in April.
Petrol and diesel prices have been rising continuously since February 9. In the 14 increases since then, price have gone up by Rs 4.22 per litre for petrol while diesel rate has risen by Rs 4.34 a litre in Delhi.
The increase in the previous weeks has taken petrol to cross historic high levels of Rs 100 a litre in several cities across the country.
The petrol and diesel prices have increased 26 times in 2021 with the two auto fuels increasing by Rs 7.46 and Rs 7.60 per litre, respectively so far this year.
Oil companies executives said that petrol and diesel prices may increase further in coming days as retail prices may have to be balanced in line with global developments to prevent OMCs from making loss on sale of auto fuels.
--IANS
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