"Sebi has not accepted our request saying that OIL had not complied with the guidelines of Sebi," OIL chairman and managing director BB sharma told newspersons here on Monday.

After giving its employees shares under Employees Stock Option (ESOP) scheme, the cash rich OIL had sought listing of its shares, but market regulator Sebi said it was not possible in absence of any public offering.

Announcing a net profit of Rs 291.60 crore on a turnoverof Rs 1,469.38 crore during 1998-99, Sharma said OIL would invest a total of Rs 2,700 crore during the Ninth Plan period, including Rs 1650 crore towards exploration and development.

Keeping in mind the oil sector deregulation by the year 2002, the corporation has decided to diversify into downstream refining and pipeline sectors for assured profits, Sharma said, adding that OIL was acquiring about 10 per cent stake in the Numaligarh Refinery at an investment of Rs 100 crore.

The corporation, which declared a 55 per cent dividend at an outgo of Rs 78.47 crore has earmarked an investment of Rs 250 crore for diversification and new alliances to ensure better returns for its stake holders.

Intertoll of the netherlands, which will operate and maintain the Build-Operate-Own-Transfer (BOOT) project, will also hold 8.68 per cent stake in the company.

Puri said the deep discount bonds offered at a price of Rs 5,000 each would be redeemed at Rs 45,000 after 16 years. However, the bondholders would have the option of exiting after the fifth and ninth year, he added.

Both bonds and debentures would attract tax benefits due to the project's infrastructure status, he said.

The project, which achieved financial closure last year, has a debt equity ratio of 70:30.

Of the total Rs 285.6 crore debt, about Rs 60 crore is from a 200 million world bank line of credit to IL&FS, while another Rs 175.6 crore would be financial institutions and banks.

The project, which was originally proposed to be funded by multilateral agencies, had to depend mostly on domestic financial institutions due to economic sanctions following the nuclear tests in May 1997.

NTBCL has already given the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for the project to Mitsui-Marubeni consortium of Japan.

Puri said so far 18.77 per cent of the work on the project has been completed at a cost of Rs 147 crore.