The L.N. Mittal-owned Mittal Investments is set to be the new joint venture partner of state-owned Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) in the latter’s Rs 16,000-crore Bathinda refinery-cum-crude pipeline project.

According to sources in HPCL, Mittal Investments and the oil PSU will hold 49 per cent stake each in the joint venture company, while a financial institution is likely to pick up the balance 2 per cent. The two companies were likely to sign a joint venture agreement shortly, the sources said.

Mittal Investments is 100 per cent owned by the Mittal family and is registered in Luxembourg. It also holds 38 per cent in Mittal Steel Company, the Netherlands-based flagship company of the L.N. Mittal group.

With this investment, the Mittal group will mark its entry in the oil refining business. It entered into a JV deal with ONGC in mid-2005 for jointly acquiring oil and gas properties abroad.

The project entails setting up a 9 million tonne greenfield refinery project at a cost of Rs 13,000 crore and laying a 1,100 km crude oil pipeline from Bathinda to Mundra port in Gujarat besides a crude oil terminal and associated facilities in Mundra.

It has had a chequered history with a government clearance coming way back in November 1998. Since then, HPCL has held advanced talks with four global oil majors Saudi Aramco, British Petroleum, Exxon-Mobil and Total. It also discussed the project with Essar Oil, but called it off due to conflicting interests.

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