ONGC plans to sell stake in Gail India Ltd

However, the country's largest oil producer said it will hold on to its stake in Indian Oil Corp.

State-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp, the country's largest oil producer, on Friday said it plans to sell its shareholding in gas firm Gail India Ltd but will hold on to its stake in Indian Oil Corp.

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"We don't have any plans to sell our stake in IOC but we are certainly looking at Gail," ONGC Chairman Subir Raha said.

Raha said ONGC sees synergy in operations by holding IOC shares as the two companies had exchanged directors on each other's boards while Gail had refused to do so.

"When we do not have operational synergy, we see no point in holding Gail shares," he said.

Both IOC and ONGC have one director in each other's Board.

Raha's comments come just a day after IOC sold half of its crossholding stake in Gail for Rs 561 crore to repay debt and raise money for expansion plans.

IOC also plans to sell one-fifth of its stock holdings in India's highest oil producer before March 31 this year.

In turn, IOC owns 9.61 per cent or 13.7 crore equity shares in ONGC and 2.4 per cent or 4.08 crore shares in GAIL.