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The newswire’s sources said the government would likely start selling IOC shares through an exchange-traded fund in January. They added that the ministers’ panel was also expected to proceed with the privatisation of Bharat Petro- leum Corporation Ltd (BPCL).
The government hopes to raise at least a third of its financial year 2019-2020 divestment target of INR1.05tn ($14.64bn) through the sale of its 53.29% stake in BPCL. Some estimates have val- ued the stake at upwards of INR600bn ($8.34bn).
The refiner is considered an attractive invest- ment target, give that it controls 38.3mn tonnes (770,000 bpd) of refining capacity and owns more than 15,000 retail fuel stations.
The sale has reportedly drawn interest from international oil giants such as Saudi Aramco,
Rosneft, Kuwait Petroleum and Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. (ADNOC), ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch Shell and Total. Local newswire IANS reported this week, however, that Aramco was on the fence over the sale.
Unnamed sources said that Aramco’s own initial public offering (IPO) coupled with existing downstream commitments in India had diminished the investment appetite of the world’s biggest oil producer.
While IOC has not ruled out an investment in BPCL, any move by the government to reduce its stake in the former will likely derail a potential investment in the latter.
Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has suggested that the BPCL sale could be wrapped up before the end of the financial year.
India’s crude oil imports slip 3.3% in October
PERFORMANCE
INDIA’S crude oil imports slipped 3.3% year on year in October to 4.56mn barrels per day (bpd), according to government data published on November 14.
The figure was up from a three-year low recorded in September, however, when oil imports dropped below 4mn bpd for the first time since June 2016. The country’s imports dropped 8.4% in September to 3.82mn bpd on the back of refinery maintenance programmes, which were themselves driven by a slump in industrial fuel demand.
With imports slipping in October, Reuters reported that the country’s dependence on crude from OPEC member countries had shrunk to its lowest monthly share since 2011. The organi- sation’s share of India’s October supply basket fell to 73%, the newswire said citing tanker data from unnamed sources. This compares with an 81% share OPEC commanded in September.
Iraq reportedly replaced Saudi Ara- bia as India’s largest supplier in October,
delivering 1.2mn bpd. Saudi shipments amounted to 739,000 bpd, followed by Nige- ria with 451,000 bpd.
“Saudi had raised its official selling price (OSP) that led to some buyers migrating to Iraqi and other producers,” Reuters quoted Refinitiv analyst Ehsan Ul Haq as saying. “Indian demand for gasoil has been falling but overall Asian demand has been relatively strong because of new marine fuel rules from January. And good diesel cracks [are] prompting refiners to buy dis- tillate-rich crudes like that of Nigeria”
Consumption of petroleum products in October amounted to 17.41mn tonnes, down marginally from the 17.66mn-tonne record in the same month of 2018, accord- ing to Petroleum Planning & Analysis Cell (PPAC) data.
India’s oil production, meanwhile, shrank by to 5.96% to 16.37mn tonnes (656,000 bpd) in the first half of financial year 2019-20. Natural gas output was 16bn cubic metres, down 1.5% y/y.
Week 46 20•November•2019 w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m P5
