OREANDA-NEWS. July 27, 2011. Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL) is planning to raise USD 300 million in the second half of the current fiscal. It has appointed Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ,State Bank of India and SumitomoMitsui Banking as advisors.

"We are currently conducting road shows and this capital-raising exercise of USD 300 million with a greenshoe option is to primarily fund expansion activities at our existing and new refinery projects," said B Mukherjee, director-finance, HPCL.

HPCL is planning to build a new 9-15 MTPA greenfield refinery project in Ratnagiri, Maharashtra. "We have identified 3,000 acres in the Lote-Parshuram industrial area in Chiplun, Konkan district and are waiting for the state government to grant us clearances for land allocation," K Murali, director, refineries, HPCL, had earlier told ET.

The company is also in the process of reviving its USD 10-billion refinery-cum-petrochemical project in Visakhapatnam and is in talks with various firms such as Mittal Energy to enter into a joint venture partnership.

Mukherjee also said that HPCL has received its share of the additional cash compensation promised by the government for losses incurred on selling subsidised fuel in the third and fourth quarter. "We have received our share of 4,500 crore in three tranches this month," he said.

In May, the government had agreed to provide 20,000 crore as compensation for revenue losses suffered by state-run oil marketing companies for selling diesel, domestic LPG and kerosene below market rates.

HPCL is currently battling a crude supply crisis as its oil supplies from Iran have been disrupted because Tehran is insisting on resolving a seven-month-old payment row.

"We have not got our regular allocation from Iran for the month of August...We do not foresee a major disruption as we have signed term contracts for crude oil supply with Iraq, Kuwait and Abu Dhabi," Murali said.