Times are still tight, though there is a turnaround in the air.
The country's largest oil refining and marketing firm, the $61 billion (Rs 2.8 lak crore) Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) says shortage of funds is coming in the way of its plans to undertake new projects and expand in related business areas such as petrochemicals. The company is also going slow with its plans to acquire of global oil and gas properties abroad.
"IOC already has a debt of Rs 50,000 crore and is losing Rs 107 crore per day on account of under-recoveries on sale of petrol, diesel, LPG and kerosene,” the new chairman and managing director, IOC, B M Bansal said.
“We are accordingly prioritising projects and have started a critical review of projects. We are first going ahead with low cost expansion projects.”
While the multi-billion dollar Paradip Petrochemical Project has been put on hold by IOC, the projects which the company is planning to execute in the near future include the Rs 30,000 crore refinery project at Paradip in Orissa.
Talks are going on for this project with global players like Saudi Aramco and Kuwait Petroleum. “Thinking (of inducting equity partners) is on... We are thinking to offer equity to someone who can bring synergy to the project,” he said. Players like Saudi Aramco can offer assured supplies of crude oil to IOC.