A joint venture of Indian Oil Corp and Malaysia's Petronas plans to import liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) in southern India and is keen to expand business in South Asia, a company statement said on Saturday. Indianoil Petronas Private Ltd, a 50:50 joint venture, which began importing LPG in eastern India in February 2002, plans to spend 2.50 billion rupees ($57 million) to build an import terminal in the southern city of Madras, it said. The joint venture sells LPG to commercial customers who are not allowed to use subsidised cooking gas sold to households by state energy firms. The company initially made losses but in the year to March 2005 it reported a net profit of 168 million rupees ($3.8 million), the statement from state-run Indian Oil Corp, the country's largest refiner, said.
Encouraged by the turnaround, the company is now keen to sell LPG in neighbouring Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, the statement said.
"Our priority, as always, will be to take this joint venture further and grow in the future," Indian Oil said. The company's imports of LPG rose to 45,631 tonnes in 2004/05 from 14,435 million tonnes a year ago. It also has plans to supply LPG for automobiles, the statement said.