World's largest oil and gas firm Exxon Mobil on Wednesday said it was not in the race for acquisition of the government's 34.01 per cent stake in Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd.

"HPCL did not fit into our plans for downstream oil business in India, so we decided not to bid," Exxon Mobil's chief representative in India, M L Cessna, told PTI in New Delhi.

Due diligence for the privatision of India's second largest oil refining and marketing company HPCL will begin early next month and the process is likely to be completed by end 2003.

Over half a dozen firms including Shell-Saudi Aramco, BP-Kuwait Petroleum Corp, Petronas of Malaysia, Chevron Texaco, Reliance Industries and Essar Oil are in the race for HPCL, which will give the buyer a ready-made distribution network to tap into the world's 7th largest retail oil market worth $15 billion a year in sales.

"We are in the lubricants business in India and also a partner in RasGas, which is bringing Liquefied Natural Gas," he said adding the firm had no immediate plans to diversify into downstream oil refining and retailing business.

Earlier, French oil giant Total too had denied being in the race for HPCL.