India adjusts HPCL sale, cuts Iran imports

NEW DELHI, August 9, 2017 – India is seeking to adjust the terms for the sale of its 51.11% stake in refiner HPCL to NOC ONGC in order to avoid offering the shares to minority stakeholders, international media reported on Wednesday.

“HPCL will continue to be a Government Company in terms of section 2(45) of the Companies Act, 2013 and will continue to be controlled by the Government of India through ONGC under the administrative control of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas,” the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management said in a corrigendum on its website.

The Indian government nevertheless hopes to count the transaction towards its target of USD 11 billion of asset sales this fiscal year (ending in March 2018), Bloomberg reported. The sale would amount to approximately half of that target, the report added.

On July 24, the Indian Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved the deal in principle. ONGC’s board is expected to give its approval in the next three months, anonymous sources told Bloomberg.

In other news from India, imports of Iranian crude in July fell by 16.3% since June and by 20.7% since July 2016, the Iranian news agency Press TV reported on Wednesday. India has vowed to reduce its oil imports from Iran by about 25% in the current fiscal year after a row with Tehran over who would develop the giant Farzad-B gasfield offshore Iran.

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