GAIL had in 2008-09 invested 19 per cent stake in ONGC Petro-additions Ltd (OPaL), which is building a mega petrochemical complex at Dahej in Gujarat.
The plant has a capacity of 1.1 million tones with an invest of Rs 12,440 crore, later it was revised three-times taking the investment over-run to Rs 21,396 crore.
"We had in 2008-09 decided to invest up to Rs. 1,000 crore in taking an equity stake in OPaL. At that time this money got us 19 per cent stake. Since then project cost has gone up and so has promoters contribution. Our board has decided to keep out investment capped at already sanctioned Rs. 1,000 crore and so our stake in the project will come down," a GAIL official said.
Initially, the project was ONGC share of 26 per cent, was originally to be funded in 70:30 debt-equity ratio. However, this was to change to 60:40 debt-equity ratio at the date of commissioning, which is now estimated to be around February 2015.
Consequently, promoter's contribution would be Rs 8,558.40 crore while the remaining Rs 12,837 crore would come by way of debt.
In the revised scheme, GAIL will have 11.64 per cent stake. On the other hand, ONGC decided to keep its stake at 26 per cent and so its equity contribution would rise from Rs 1,668.88 crore 2,225.18 crore.
Gujarat State Petroleum Corp (GSPC) also reduced from its original stake to 3.75 per cent from 5 per cent.
ONGC has reasoned the increase in project cost primarily to additional cost of Phase-II captive power plant and increase in cost of building the Phase-I electricity generating unit as well as interest cost on debt during construction phase.
