IOC plans to sell oil bonds worth Rs 1,500-2,000 cr

New Delhi, Sept 3 (UNI) State-run Indian Oil Corporation Ltd today said it plans to sell oil bonds worth Rs 1,500 to Rs 2,000 crore to offset losses incurred due to the skyrocketing international crude oil prices in October.

''We plan to sell oil bonds worth Rs 1,500-2,000 crore in October,'' IOC Director (Finance) S V Narasimhan told reporters here.

He said without selling the bonds the company may not be able to show profits in the second quarter of this fiscal.

From April onwards, the company has lined up Rs 4,000 crore by liquidating the oil bonds.

IOC Chairman Sarthak Behuria said he expects Rs 24,000-Rs 30,000 crore in oil bonds for the entire industry to bear some of the losses the state-run oil companies have had to suffer on account of higher oil prices in global markets.

''IOC has an underrecovery of Rs 80 crore per day on its sale,'' Mr Behuria said.

The estimated PSU oil firms' losses on the sale of petrol, diesel, LPG and kerosene is at Rs 52,162 crore, but the Finance Ministry is yet to work out the losses.

Crude oil prices have touched 74 dollar a barrel today, within sight of its record high, as OPEC kept a lid on output in the run-up to its September 11 ministerial meeting. India imports more than 70 per cent of its crude oil requirement.

UNI