The Hindu : Oil companies pay Rs. 2,740 cr. as interim dividend

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Feb 05, 2004

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Oil companies pay Rs. 2,740 cr. as interim dividend

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, FEB. 4. The Union Petroleum Minister, Ram Naik, today said public sector oil companies had paid an interim dividend of Rs. 2,739.58 crores for 2003-04 as against Rs. 2,687.42 crores last year. He said the highest dividend was paid by oil the exploration major, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), with Rs. 1,678 crores at the rate of 140 per cent.

Addressing the Parliamentary Consultative Committee attached to his Ministry, he said this was followed by the Indian Oil Corporation's dividend of Rs. 479 crores at 50 per cent and Rs. 227.83 crores by the Gas Authority of India at 40 per cent and Rs. 126 crores by Oil India at 60 per cent.

In addition, the Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited and the Hindustan Petroleum Corporation declared interim dividends of Rs. 119.16 crores and Rs. 103.84 crores respectively. IBP paid a dividend for the first time of Rs. 5.75 crores at the rate of 100 per cent of its equity.

Mr. Naik told members the Government was also selling 10 per cent stake each in ONGC and GAIL to raise over Rs. 12,000 crores this fiscal. Public issues to sell 142.6 million shares of ONGC and 84.6 million shares of GAIL would hit the market in March, he said.

Besides, 26 per cent residual equity in petro retailer IBP too would be offered to public this year. On oil exploration, he said contracts for 26 more exploration blocks under the new exploration licensing policy would be signed on February 6. Contracts for eight blocks under the second round of coal bed methane policy would also be signed simultaneously. Regarding recent developments, he said Cairn Energy of U.K. had discovered up to 1.1 billion barrels of oil reserves in Rajasthan while ONGC Videsh and GAIL, in a consortium with Korean companies, had struck 4-6 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves in offshore Myanmar.

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