LONDON, March 24 (KUNA) -- Oil giant British Petroleum (BP) Friday confirmed it had abandoned plans to build a massive refinery in Punjab with the Indian Government.
BP signed a letter of intent with state-run Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) last October to build the three billion US dollars (1.73 billion pounds) refinery with a capacity of 180,000 barrels of oil a day.
But despite heralding it as "a major step forward" at the time, BP today pulled out of the deal and said it was focussing on other opportunities elsewhere.
A BP spokesman said in a statement "We do not intend to take the letter of intent we signed with HPCL forward to the joint venture stage."
"Since October we have been discussing the detail of what the deal would look like but have decided that this particular arrangement will not go any further."
"We have lots of different opportunities elsewhere around the world for investment and we will not be continuing discussions with HPCL," the spokesman added.
As well as proposing the refinery in the north of India, the letter of intent outlined plans for a chain of petrol stations.
But after five months of detailed negotiations, BP decided to concentrate on investment opportunities elsewhere.
The deal appeared to be in jeopardy months ago as the two sides struggled to agree on terms.
The worlds largest oil companies have been keen to access the Indian market as the retail sector is the third biggest in Asia and exploration has been boosted by a series of oil and natural gas discoveries.
Shares in BP were up two percent today, traders said.
