RIL keen on buying Cairn's Rajasthan crude oil

Reliance Industries is keen on buying Cairn India's Rajasthan crude oil but said it cannot take the oil unless the pipeline from fields to Gujarat coast is built.

RIL wants 30,000 to 60,000 barrels per day of Cairn crude at each of its two refineries at Jamnagar in Gujarat.

"We want Rajasthan crude but have no facility to receive (oil in) tankers," RIL executive director P M S Prasad said.

Cairn, which began crude oil production from its prolific Rajasthan fields on August 29, will transport initial volumes to refiners by trucks and tankers. A pipeline from the Barmer district fields to Gujarat coast will be completed by the year-end. "We will be willing to take Rajasthan crude once the pipeline is completed," he said.

The government has so far nominated Indian Oil, Hindustan Petroleum and Mangalore Refinery to buy the Rajasthan crude. But the three have committed to lift only a small portion of the 175,000 bpd peak output from the fields, necessitating sale to private refiners.

Essar Oil, the only other private refiner in the country, has also written to the Petroleum Ministry seeking 30,000 bpd of Rajasthan crude this year and 120,000 bpd by 2011 when it expands its Vadinar refinery in Gujarat.