"Our ultimate aim is to have a single oil company for strategic reasons that would match the strength of multi-national oil majors," petroleum Minister V K Ramamurthy said.

A cabinet note that incorporates the future concerns of government including the restructuring of oil sector along with mergers and amalgamations of stand-alone refineries has been circulated to all ministries, Ramamurthy said.

"We circulated a cabinet note within 15 days of Nitish Sengupta submitting his report to us and it is now up to the cabinet to take a final view on our recommendations," he said.

The Nitish Sengupta committee had recommended creation of an umbrella holding company with a combined strength of OIL-Hindustan Petroleum, Bharat Petroleum-IBP,Cochin Refinery, Madras Refinery and Numaligargh Refinery which would be the equal size of fortune 500 company Indian Oil Corporation (IOC). The petroleum ministry has accepted recommendations of Nitish Sengupta with certain modifications.