Kuwait Petroleum eyes equity in RPL

Sultan said his company was keen on participation infineries which have established credentials. Asked if Kuwait Petroleum would consider an operating refinery over a grassroot refinery he said, "we want to invest in credible and established refinery".

KPC sees particiaption in the Jamnagar refinery as a logical extension of the current partnership it has with RPL by way of being the largest supplier of crude to the refinery. Kuwait Petroleum was earlier reported to have been offered 26 per cent stake in the Aditya Birla Group promoted by Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL). Kuwait Petroleum is not keen on the loss making refinery as it has huge interest liability.

CEO of HPCL, a partner in MRPL H L Zutshi said the refinery built at a debt-equity ratio of 7:1 has been making losses for the last three years and was operating at below 80 per cent capacity. He said that talks were not on with Kuwait Petroleum forequity participation in MRPL.

Ambani family of Reliance Industries Ltd (RPL) hold 64 per cent stake in RPL while the remaining is with financial institutions, banks and retail investors.

Induction of Kuwait Petroleum in the refinery project would entail Ambani offloading their stake in favour of the middle-eastern downstream company, sources said. Sultan said Kuwait petroleum has drawn an ambitious plan to expand its refinery capacity to three million tonnes by 2005 from the present level of about 2.4 million tonnes.

The Sultan said that the company is expanding its Kuwait refinery capacity from 8,50,000 barrels a day to one million barrels a day. "The expansion plan is currently in design stage and isexpected to be completed in 4-5 years time," he said adding that the expansion would involve destroying of fuel oil and shifting from heavy crude to light crude.

Kuwait Petroleum, which produces 2.1 million barrels a day, of which 1.1 million barrels a day is exported, has refineries in Italy and Holland, Sultan added.

(PTI)