New Delhi: State gas utility GAIL India Ltd is eyeing 19 per cent stake in Oil and Natural Gas Corp's Rs 13,600-crore mega petrochemical project at Dahej in Gujarat as part of its plans to maintain its position in the chemical business.

"ONGC has offered us 9 per cent stake in the project to extract C2/C3 from gas at Dahej. We have however asked them to consider giving us an additional 10 per cent," GAIL Chairman and Managing Director U D Choubey told PTI here.

The Board of GAIL yesterday cleared the proposal to take 19 per cent stake in ONGC Petro-additions Ltd (OPaL), the special purpose vehicle formed by ONGC for setting up the petrochemical complex at Dahej SEZ.

ONGC holds 26 per cent stake in OPaL and five per cent is with Gujarat State Petroleum Corp (GSPC).

Companies like Petronet LNG may also join the project that is likely to come up in 2012. The project is based on the rich-gas Petronet imports in the form of LNG (liquefied natural gas) at Dahej from Qatar.

C2-C3 (ethane, propane) will be extracted from the gas, which will then be fed into the petrochemical plant to manufacture polymers.

Choubey said the equity in OPaL was part of his vision for GAIL to retain its significant presence in petrochemical business.

GAIL during the past one year has refocussed itself, identifying petrochemical as one of the growth vehicles. It has already announced plans to double its Pata petrochemical plants capacity to 8,00,000 tonnes in 3-4 years.
Source : PTI