The Indian government is considering restructuring central public sector companies and merging state oil companies to create a US$100bn giant, that could compete with giant international groups. The eight largest listed companies, in which the central government has interests, have a market value of US$108bn, close to that of BP (US$115bn) and higher than Rosneft (US$70bn).
There are 13 companies controlled by the central government, including upstream group ONGC, refiner Indian Oil Corp, Bharat Petroleum, Hindustan Petroleum, GAIL, Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals (MRPL), Chennai Petroleum, Numaligarh Refinery and Oil India. All companies could be grouped into a single group.
In addition, the government has proposed to build two additional strategic petroleum reserves, on top of the existing three facilities (1.33 Mt in Visakhapatnam, 1.5 Mt in Mangalre and 2.5 Mt in Padur). The underground crude oil storages would be built in Chandikhole in Odisha and in Bikaner in Rajasthan. They would add 10 Mt to the strategic reserves (4.4 Mt at Chandikhol and 5.6 Mt at Bikaner) and should be commissioned by 2020.