Oman Oil to raise stake in Bharat Petroleum to 26%

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India's Bharat Petroleum Corp on Sunday said Oman Oil Co has agreed to raise its stake in a 120,000 barrels per day Central India refinery to 26%.

Oman Oil Co currently owns about a 2 percent stake in its joint venture with BPCL-Bharat Oman Refineries Limited (BORL), which is building the Bina refinery in the Central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh.

The project, which includes the refinery, crude import facilities at Vadinar on India's west coast and a cross-country pipeline, is expected to cost around Rs 113.97 billion (USD 2.4 billion), BPCL said in a statement.

An agreement for additional investment by Oman Oil was signed in Nizwa, Oman, on Sunday by Omani Commerce and Industry Minister Maqbool Bin Ali Sultan, who is also chairman of Oman Oil Co; BPCL Chairman and Managing Director Ashok Sinha, and U.N. Joshi, managing director of BORL.

The refinery project is nearly 96% complete, and production is due to start in the second quarter of 2010, Bharat Petroleum said in a statement

BPCL owns a 240,000 barrel per day refinery at Mumbai and a 190,000 bpd refinery in the southern Indian state of Kerala, run by subsidiary Kochi Refineries Ltd.

It also owns a majority stake in a 60,000-bpd refinery in northeast India.