Asia Pulse: INDIA'S HPCL MAY PICK UP STAKE IN SHELL'S LNG TERMINAL: "State-run Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd on Wednesday said it was at an advanced stage of talks with Shell India for picking up stake in its Hazira LNG terminal in Gujarat and a deal was possible this fiscal year.": Thursday November 17, 2005

NEW DELHI, Nov 17 Asia Pulse - State-run Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BSE:500104) on Wednesday said it was at an advanced stage of talks with Shell India for picking up stake in its Hazira LNG terminal in Gujarat and a deal was possible this fiscal year.

"We are talking to them for picking up stake in Hazira. The picture would be clearer by January and a deal is possible by the end of this fiscal," HPCL chairman and managing director M B Lal told reporters on the sidelines of the signing in function of MoUs with GAIL (India) Ltd.

Lal said HPCL was in talks with Shell for the equity but there were various issues such as valuation of the stake and the LNG supply that needed to be looked into.

HPCL is believed to be interested in acquiring a 25 per cent stake in the terminal. Lal, however, refused to specify but said it was a good opportunity for the government-run refining and marketing company as it does not have an presence in the LNG business so far.

Shell is unlikely to offload more than 25 per cent since its own equity would then fall to less than 51 per cent.

Shell had started marketing LNG from the Hazira terminal earlier this year but has so far found few takers on account of the high prices it was charging. The terminal has a capacity of 2.5 million tonnes per annum but is currently being under-utilised because of lack of customers.

GAIL chairman Prashanto Banerjee said they had also approached Shell for picking up a stake in Hazira but received no response from the multinational energy major.

(PTI)

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