The government on Thursday said that it had called off the current process for inviting expression of interests (EoIs) for the strategic disinvestment of Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL). 

The plan to offload stake in the State-run oil refinery had not been chalked off as the government said that it would re-initiate the process in “due course based on review of the situation”. 

The current EoI process had been called off as majority of BPCL suitors had “expressed their inability to continue”, the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) said in a statement. 

The process to invite EoIs was initiated by DIPAM in March 2020, days before the COVID-19 outbreak was declared as a pandemic. The Centre had planned to offload l,14,91,83,592 equity shares or 52.9 per cent stake in BPCL. 

Despite the COVID-19 disruption, multiple EoIs were received, DIPAM said, adding that qualified interested parties (QIPs) “had initiated due diligence on the company”. 

“However, the multiple COVID-19 waves and geo-political conditions affected multiple industries globally, particularly oil and gas industry. Owing to prevailing conditions in the global energy market, the majority of QIPs had expressed their inability to continue in the current process of disinvestment of BPCL,” the statement added.