Shourie set to announce oil firms' sale plans

Divestment Minister Arun Shourie will make a statement on stake sales in two state-run oil firms on Monday following a consensus reached on the issue by a group of top ministers, a senior ministry official said.

 

Pradip Baijal, the top privatisation ministry official, said Shourie will announce in parliament the government's decision on the sale of Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd and Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd.

 

But he gave no details about the decision taken at a meeting of senior ministers last Thursday.

 

"He will make a statement on the HPCL and BPCL sale in Parliament on Monday. The timing is not yet known," he said.

 

The Economic Times financial

daily, quoting unnamed sources, said on Friday the government planned to call for bids for a strategic stake in HPCL and to privatise BPCL through an initial public offering.

 

Shourie said last week Cabinet ministers had 'reached a unanimous view on divestment' at the meeting convened by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee aimed at ending a rift over sale of the two oil refiners postponed for the past three months.

 

The government's privatisation drive, which gathered pace in 2002 after the sale of stakes in a petrochemical company and a telecommunications firm, ground to a halt in September after deep cabinet differences emerged over privatising the refiners.

 

Any decision on privatising the refiners must be cleared by the Cabinet Committee on Divestment headed by the prime minister.