Total, Reliance unlikely to bid for BPCL; BP wants to see whats on offer

New Delhi: French energy giant Total SA as well as oil-to-telecom conglomerate Reliance Industries are unlikely to bid for acquiring India's second biggest oil refining and marketing company BPCL, while UK's BP plc said it wants to see what is on offer before deciding to bid.

The government is looking at selling its 53.29 per cent stake in BPCL to a strategic investor in the biggest privatisation bid in the history of India. BPCL has a market capitalisation of Rs 1.05 lakh crore and its acquisition together with the mandatory open offer to minority shareholders would cost upwards of Rs 82,000 crore.

On a visit here to attend an industry conference, Total Chairman and CEO Patrick Pouyanne said the company was interested in investing in downstream petrochemicals and retailing market in India but was "not interested in Indian refineries".

Reliance, which operates the world's biggest refinery complex at single site, too is unlikely to bid as it is already in talks to sell out a fifth of its oil-to-chemicals business to Saudi Aramco to cut down high debt it had taken for its foray in telecom business, sources said.

BPCL is the country's the second-largest state-owned refining and marketing firm, accounting for 15 per cent of total installed refining capacity. In addition, it markets 21 per cent of petroleum products consumed in the country by volume as of March this year.