On the eve of Assamese New Year, OIL and NRL during a press meet announced that Numaligarh Refinery has not been privatized.
Earlier, news went viral on various media platforms that NRL has been privatized.
March 25, 2021, marked a historic day for stakeholders, employees of both NRL and OIL. On this day, the Share Purchase Agreement (SPA) was signed between BPCL and consortium of OIL and Engineers India Limited (EIL) for the sale of Rs. 43.05 crore shares in NRL at a consideration of Rs. 9,375.96 crore.
EIL bought 3.21 crore shares for Rs. 700 crores and OIL paid Rs. 8,675.96 crores for 39.84 crore shares. The remaining 2.29 crore equity shares held by BPCL have been purchased by the Government of Assam (GoA) for the price of Rs. 500 crore.
With these transactions, BPCL transferred its entire 61.65 percent holding in NRL to the Government of Assam and other institutions.
The acquisition of majority shares of NRL by OIL can be considered a strategic business decision. It is also a defining moment of OIL’s corporate journey as an E&P company with an interest in the oil and gas value chain.
At the same time, NRL also has become a part of an integrated energy company. Together, OIL and NRL can create a tremendous synergy that will help to consolidate business plans and sustainable growth.
Following are the major highlights of the acquisition of NRL:
• New Shareholding pattern of NRL-
Oil India Limited 80.16 percent
Govt. of Assam 15.47 percent
Engineers India Limited 04.37 percent
• OIL has become the promoter and the holding company of NRL with majority shareholding.
• OIL CMD has now become the Chairman of NRL’s Board.
• GoA intends to increase its shareholding in NRL to 26 percent. Assam government I likely to purchase remaining shares from OIL in course of time.
Oil India Limited (OIL) and NRL Synergy:-
• OIL is the primary source of crude oil for NRL. It supplies about 2,000 TMT of crude oil to Numaligarh Refinery, about 67 percent of NRL’s requirement.
• OIL produces about 7-8 MMSCMD of NG in North-East, out of which about 1 MMSCMD is supplied to NRL.
• The Naharkatiya-Barauni crude pipeline and Numaligarh-Siliguri Product Pipeline is currently operated by OIL.
• NRL is executing a cross country crude pipeline of 1630 km in length traversing through 5 states (Assam, West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, and Odisha).
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