Our Bureau

Mr Suresh Mathur

New Delhi , Jan. 19

QATAR'S RasGas may pick up equity in Petronet LNG Ltd in return for ONGC taking a 5 per cent stake in liquefaction plants of RasGas.

``We have a provision (with RasGas) to have cross exchange of equity in both upstream and downstream projects where Oil and Natural Gas Corporationd is to pick up 5 per cent stake in liquefaction plants,'' Mr Suresh Mathur, Chairman and Managing Director, Petronet LNG Ltd, said on the sidelines of the Petrotech-2005 conference.

``We will consider the participation of RasGas at the expansion stage''. Mr Mathur, however, refused to divulge the quantum of stake that would be offered to RasGas.

Petronet is in the process of expanding its Dahej terminal in Gujarat from 5 million tonnes to 10 million tonnes. It sources 2.5 million tonnes of its LNG requirements from RasGas and has exercised the option for an additional 2.5 million tonnes from the next fiscal.

ONGC has begun talks with RasGas for picking up a five per cent stake in its LNG facility at Ras Laffan.

Petronet is setting up a second LNG terminal at Kochi in Kerala at an estimated cost of Rs 2,000 crore. It is expected to borrow funds from the market either through an external commercial borrowing (ECB) issue or foreign currency convertible bonds (FCCB) to part-fund the project.

``We are open to an ECB or FCCB. Our objective is to bring in least cost funding and we will take all opportunities into account", he disclosed.

The project would be funded through a mix of equity and debt in the ratio of 30:70. The entire equity component would be funded through internal accruals.

``We are not considering issue of fresh equity and we think we can manage from internal accruals and premium raised from our initial public offering,'' he said.

The Kochi terminal is slated for completion by December 2008.

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