The process of divestment of HPCL and BPCL, the two public-sector oil companies, would not be set in motion till the Lok Sabha has discussed the issue, Union Petroleum Minister Ram Naik said on Saturday.

The Lok Sabha is scheduled to discuss the issue during the current session.

The minister, addressing the inaugural session of the Second World Conference of Oil, Gas and Refinery Trade Unions here, also said the 12 oil PSUs, out of which five were Navratnas and six mini-ratnas, were contributing more than 65 per cent of the total profits of all the 240 public sector units in the country.

Naik, who was commenting on the oil PSU divestment issue raised by the CITU vice-president Jyoti Basu said that oil companies were performing excellently in terms of efficiency.

Basu had said that privatisation of oil companies would allow unbridled entry of foreign MNCs.

In this context, he urged the oil trade unions to help in the development of the industry while coping with competition in the new era.

Naik said the government has stockpiled oil for 60 days, and has entered into forward contracts so that supplies were not disrupted in case a war broke out in West Asia.

Currently, 70 per cent of India's oil requirement was being imported at a cost of Rs 78,000 crore. To reduce dependence on imports, the government was making all efforts to explore oil and natural gas on land and offshore, he said.

After three rounds of exploration under the New Exploration Policy, 70 blocks had been given to various parties.

He said ONGC would start drilling at Contai in Midnapur in West Bengal in July 2003.

Naik said the government, through ONGC, has already Rs 470 crore (Rs 4.70 billion) in digging 45 wells for drilling purposes in West Bengal.