No proposal to buy stake in Nagarjuna Group being considered: IOC

New Delhi, April 8 (IANS) Denying rumors of it looking at buying a stake in Nagarjuna Group's Cuddalore refinery, Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) said on Friday there is no such proposal under consideration.

“This is with respect to news reports under circulation in the media that Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. is considering buying equity stake in the Cuddalore Refinery of Nagarjuna Oil Corporation. Kindly note that this news item is totally baseless and speculative in nature. There is no such proposal under consideration by IndianOil at present,” IOC said in a statement.

Earlier, there were reports in some sections of the media that the state-owned IOC has held preliminary discussions on picking up a stake in Nagarjuna Group's Tamil-Nadu based refinery.

Singapore-based Netoil in February this year, was in talks to buy a stake in the Cuddalore refinery, with a refining capacity of six million tonnes a year, but the talks did not come through.

The IOC in 2002, had declined to take a majority stake in Cuddalore refinery, saying that the country had refining capacity in surplus.