New Delhi, Oct 08: Armed with the mandate of the Cabinet Committee on Disinvestment to explore possibility of 'disinvesting marketing arm of Indian Oil Corporation', the disinvestment ministry will approach petroleum ministry in a day or two for a follow up action to meet 3-month deadline. Brushing aside the controversy over the executive option of exploring sale of retail business of IOC in the face of Supreme Court halting disinvestment in HPCL and BPCL, ministry of disinvestment officials would write to petroleum ministry to enquire 'how best we work on it (execute the mandate given by CCD at its meeting on October 3)', government sources said.

As per the mandate, recorded in the minutes of the CCD, the Ministry of Disinvestment, in tandem with petroleum ministry, was to explore possibility of divesting marketing arm (presumably the open market sale of petro products) within three months for attaining the objective of bringing in private players in oil marketing apart from divestment in oil PSUs, which the government intended to do in BPCL and HPCL. The decision, relating to IOC, had led to media speculations about a conflict between Petroleum Minister Ram Naik, who had reportedly said that there was no decision to split IOC, and Disinvestment Minister Arun Shourie.
Bureau Report