New Delhi: At least half a dozen national and international oil giants, including Reliance and Royal Dutch Shell, on March 17 joined the race for acquiring government's 34 per cent stake in Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL).

Today was the last date for submission of Expression of Interest (EoI) for HPCL, which the Disinvestment Ministry had sought a month ago soon after it decided to disinvest stake in two oil Public Sector Undertakings (PSU)s-- HPCL and BPCL (Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd).

Although the Disinvestment Ministry remained tight-lipped about the response, sources said a consortium of Essar Group companies besides international Oil giant Saudi Aramco also filed in their EoIs.

Others who have thrown their hat in the HPCL disinvestment ring include ChevronTexco of US and Petronas of Malayasia.

Kuwait Petroleum is also believed to be in the race but there was no confirmation till this evening as to whether it has submitted an EoI. Likewise, it could not be ascertained if Sun Group of Russia had submitted its EoI.

PTI