Oil India, EIL eye BPCL refinery; EIL to have a minority stake

We will submit the bid along with Oil India for Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd’s (BPCL) 61.65 percent stake in Numaligarh Refinery, said Sunil Bhatia, Director of Finance at Engineers India, on Friday. The two public sector undertakings are going to bid for BPCL’s 61.65 percent in Numaligarh Refinery.

Speaking in an interview with CNBC-TV18, Bhatia said, “Our board approved submission of financial bid in a consortium with Oil India Ltd. So Oil India will be submitting the financial bid with the timeline given by BPCL for submission of the bid. We are a minority stakeholder partner, so we will be taking minority stake only.”

“We will not be taking any debt to finance this transaction. This acquisition will give us ownership in refinery business and we see this as an opportunity to diversify into downstream business and also to deploy our surplus cash,” he added.