OIL reveals investment, IPO plans

Public sector oil & gas company Oil India Ltd on Friday said that it has initiated plan outlay of about Rs 4,500 crore (Rs 45 billion) over the next two years in development and expansion activities. "We are looking at plan outlay of about Rs 4,500 crore in the next two years till 2010. Majority of this investment will be in the domestic operations," M R Pasrija, chairman and managing director, OIL, told PTI on the sidelines of Institute of Chartered Accountants of India regional conference.

Pasrija also said that to fund the expansion and augmenting production, the company would hit the capital market in February 2008. OIL has interest in oil, natural gas and LPG production in Assam, Rajasthan and Arunachal Pradesh. While, in overseas, OIL has joint venture interest for oil and gas blocks in Libya, Nigeria, Yemen, Iran, Goban and Sudan. Pasrija said OIL has highest number of blocks in Libya after four new blocks were offered to this consortium in December.

"We will shortly sign product sharing agreement with Algerian company, SonaTrack, which will be the operator in the four blocks with 50% interest. While, Indian Oil Corporation and OIL will hold 25% each, he said. On its entry into capital market, OIL said it will offer up to 26.45 million shares constituting 11% of the total capital at a price to be decided through a 100% book building process. Of these, 24.05 million shares will be available to the public.