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Gaz de France, too, eyes Dabhol

S Ravindran & George Smith Alexander

Close on the heels of TotalFinaElf evincing an interest in acquiring a controlling stake in the Dabhol Power Company, Gaz de France, the French public sector energy giant, has evinced an interest in buying into DPC.

"The company is exploring the possibility of taking over DPC and has initiated talks with the lenders and will take a final decision on submitting a formal expression of interest soon," sources in the lenders' consortium said.

This takes the number of companies which want to acquire the foreign sponsors' equity of 85 per cent in DPC to six. The three US-based companies Enron, General Electric and Bechtel which hold a combined 85 per cent stake in the company.

Tata Power Company, BSES, Gas Authority of India and Shell have gone public with their statements of interest in the company while TotalFinaElf has recently expressed an interest privately.

The $8.5 billion Gaz de France is one of the world's leading gas exploration and production companies and figures among the top 10 investors in France. It has a presence in 22 countries and has gas reserves of about 1.6 billion tonnes and international sales account for 10 per cent of its turnover.

Gaz de France is no stranger to India. Recently, it has picked up a 10 per cent stake in the state sponsored gas company Petronet LNG which is planning to build a liquefied natural gas chain between Middle East and India. This company proposes to import gas from Qatar and build and run an LNG terminal at Dahej in Gujarat.

Gaz de France's interest in DPC is in line with its Indian ambitions. It has identified the Indian market as one with major long-term development potential as its perceived as the leading eastern marker for gas from the Middle East region.

The DPC project entails the construction of an LNG terminal. Sources said that like TotalFina and GAIL, the chief attraction for Gaz de France is also the LNG facility.

At present though the LNG facility is not available in isolation, the company will have to bid for the near complete, 2,184 mw power project at Ratnagiri district in Maharashtra.

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