Battle for Petronet chief hots up

What makes the battle all the more interesting is that, since only Petronet can lay pipelines, each oil company feels that having their nominee as the chairman will ensure that their interests are advanced, or at leastprevented from being compromised. Thus HPCL, for instance, would be very keen that Petronet lay the Rs 800 crore Mangalore-Hasan-Bangalore pipeline on a priority basis, to evacuate products from its Mangalore refinery — currently, the biggest project being talked of is the Central India pipeline to evacuate supplies from IOC’s Koyali refinery and Reliance’s Patalganga one, and carry them to Central India. Similarly, IOC wishes to ensure that it should have at least a 26 per cent stake in the proposed Central India pipeline — Reliance has indicated that it would like to have a 26 per cent stake — and BPCL is still not entirely convinced that the pipeline will jeopardise the viability of its proposed Bina refinery.

When contacted, Petronet’s managing director, L Chabbra, was non-committal, and said the matter would be decided at the next board meeting. According to Petronet’s articles of association, the chairman would be a nominee of IOC — Pathan is IOC’s chief — or BPC or HPC, and that the post is tobe rotated between them every two years.

But while HPCL seems to have taken the view that it is their turn now since they are the second-largest oil company — Pathan was given the first shot since IOC is the largest company — others seem to feel that the articles of association suggest that it is BPCL’s turn this time around.