Public sector oil companies were missing a huge Rs 150 crore daily on the sale of petroleum products.

Sarthak Behuria, the IOC chairman, said Indian Oil Corporation alone lost Rs 80 crore each day.

Rejecting to mention the amount of hike hinted by the oil companies to counterbalance the loss, Mr. Behuria said it was for the Centre to resolve.

He told that the oil firms were mislaying Rs 2.81 on the sale of per litre of petrol, Rs 16 on kerosene,.Rs 4.68 on diesel and Rs 120 on every cylinder of LPG.

Behuria, also the chairman of Chennai Petroleum Corporation Limited, told CPCL and IOC were considering setting up a Rs 45,000 crore ‘grassroot refinery-cum-petrochemical’ complex at suburban Ennore.

The Tamil Nadu administration had nominated a group, which is headed by the Chairman of the Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation, to discover land for the project. The new project required 3,000 acres of land.

Engineers India Ltd would deliver its report by the end of September. It would be an export oriented plant.

Behuria, who commanded the Annual General Meeting of CPCL, stated the company made a record profit of Rs 565 crore in 2006, as compared to Rs 481 crore in 2005. It also handled 10.40 million tons of crude during the period as against 10.36 MT in the previous year.

The company announced a 120 per cent dividend for 2006-07.