Sun Petrochemicals bids for Assam Oil
MUMBAI:DILIP Shanghvi promoted Sun Petrochemicals Pvt. Ltd has bid for the assets of debt-ridden Assam Co. India Ltd (ACIL), two people aware of the development said.
Kolkata-based Assam Co. is India’s oldest tea company, and has businesses in infrastructure and oil and gas.
Last October, the Guwahati bench of National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) had ordered commencing insolvency resolution of ACIL.
“The bid is a package deal which includes a tea garden, the Amguri oil field and a hydrocarbon and SEZ asset held by ACIL,” said one of the people mentioned above said.
Sun Petrochemicals declined comment while ACIL did not reply to an email sent on 14 August. Amguri field in the Assam-arakan basin is held by Assam Oil Company, ACIL’S oil and gas division. Amguri is currently not a producing field.
Till 2009, ACIL held 40% in the field and operated it under a consortium with Canoro Resources Ltd, a Canada-based exploration and production company which held 60%.
In August 2010, the central government terminated Canoro’s 60% interest and operatorship for breach of production sharing contract.
The field was closed in December 2010 and the government handed over the field to ONGC in 2011 to continue the operations.