On his very first day in office, he expressed an aversion to uncompromised liberalisation. Later he stuck out for keeping the subsidy on kerosene, at the cost of upsetting the tariff reforms schedule for petroleum products.

The New Exploration and Licensing Policy (NELP) saw the light of day during his tenure, but the more exuberant wooing of multinationals with tax sops was missing from the final package. He has now decided to stand his ground on keeping national oil companies as they are, with minor exceptions, like corporates too small to survive free market competition.

Even then, he prefers handing over government stock to government companies, rather than a global auction of shares. In an interview with The Financial Express, he 6talks about his views on the future of oil PSUs in a deregulated scenario, the needof a long term energy perspective amoong other issues.

A Cabinet note was in circulation on the recommendations of the Nitish Sengupta committee, but the finance ministry has raised some objections to the proposals. The finance ministry is believed to be in favour of global bidding of government stock in oil companies, instead of transferring government equity from one public sector company to another.

The petroleum ministry had recommended that government equity in Cochin Refineries Limited (CRL) and IBP Company be transferred to Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL). It also proposed selling government equity in Bongaigaon Refineries and Petrochemicals Limited (BRPL) and Madras Refineries Limited (MRL) to Indian Oil Corporation (IOC).

What will be the fate of the Nitish Sengupta committee report ultimately? Are those proposals still alive? I am forced to say that all this is a figment of the imagination of the press. The petroleum ministry has taken certain decisions, the decisions have beencirculated to the ministries concerned, to elicit their opinion. The finance ministry is free to attach its comments, but ultimately a decision will be taken by the Cabinet.

Where is the question of the committee recommendations being dead or alive?

The press and the media are rife with reports of a Shell-Saudi Aramco bid to buy equity into Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL).

How does this fit in with the industry restructuring proposed by the Sengupta panel?

We cannot subscribe to their (Shell-Saudi Aramco's) way of thinking. A multinational will have to invest at least Rs 2000 crore in a refinery to be eligible for marketing rights in this country. Shell and Saudi Aramco backed out of HPCL's Bhatinda refinery project and now they want to come back with a new proposal. They cannot throw some chips crumbs at us to win us over.In any case, this proposal has not come to me as yet. Moreover, we will not part with any equity in HPCL to a multinational, because the governmentholding in that company is already 51 per cent.

So we can rule out further disinvestment in HPCL ?

On no account, will we allow government equity to come down to below 51 per cent in any national oil company.

All over the world governments retain at least a 51 per cent stake in national oil companies, why should we go against the trend?

What about Engineers India Limited (EIL)? You are thinking of bringing down government equity to 26 per cent in that company. Companies like EIL are different. It is an engineering consultancy company, that is too small to be able to bid for turnkey projects on its own in the international market. So, we are looking for a strategic partner. And notice that I say a `strategic partner.' I am not talking of a strategic sale.

The Prime Minister has set up a group on Hydrocarbon Vision 2020 and last week the group set up sub-groups to evolve policies on specific issues. But isn't the exercise rather futuristic?

The Hydrocarbon Vision 2020 policy isvery important. The petroleum sector needs a long-term plan, especially since we are close to the terminal year of administered price controls. At this point, we need a broad outline of policies for the petroleum sector after the year 2002. The Prime Minister has set up this group at an appropriate time.

The Nirmal Singh committee had evolved a post-liberalisation policy framework for the oil industry. Apparently the Nirmal Singh panel recommendations (on tariff structure for petroleum products, for instance) have not found favour in some quarters of the government. Will it be necessary to review the pattern of liberalisation in the oil industry ?

The Nirmal Singh committee report will not be disturbed. The paper on Hydrocarbon Vision 2020 serves a different purpose. We have to know now what the oil import bill could be 20 years later and how we could get that oil.

We have to think about the oil security of the nation. Restructuring the oil industry (to cope with the free market after 2020) willalso be very important. Then we have to have a policy for participation of oil companies in business in foreign countries. We need a policy on building infrastructure for transporting oil. We may need a pipeline from the Middle East. We will have to build pipeline infrastructure within the country to reduce the pressure on road transport. The Nitish Sengupta committee has already submitted a report on restructuring the public sector oil companies.The Nitish Sengupta committee has only dealt with stand-alone refineries. We need a long-term plan, a vision for the rest of the industry as well.