The Government is selling its 5 per cent stake in the follow-on public offer (FPO) that will open on March 15.

At around 8.45 am on Friday morning, the company had detected a leak in its Mumbai-Uran Trunk (MUT) oil pipeline, which transports crude oil from the Mumbai High offshore fields.

Around a mile long oil spill has been detected from a ruptured pipeline some 80 km off the Mumbai coast, state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) said on Friday.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on Wednesday approved splitting a share of ONGC with a face value of Rs 10 into two shares of Rs 5, each.

The 30-share BSE benchmark, which had gained 713.39 points in the last three trading sessions, climbed 142.70 points to 19,992.70. It touched a day's high of 20,084.25.

Reacting to Chairman B M Bansal's comment that shares of the company will be traded at Rs 450 a piece for the FPO, IOC scrip soared 14.32 per cent to Rs 383.10 on BSE.

Besides, 1:1 bonus issue (one share for every share held) will also be considered as a prelude to the company's follow-on public slated in March 2011.

In the upcoming MOIL offer, set to open on Nov 26 and close on Dec 1, the Centre will dilute 10 per cent stake, along with MP and Maharashtra govts shedding 5 per cent, each.

The proposed transaction between Cairn Indian and Vedanta Resources \"is at shareholder level...there will be no change to the participating interest\", the firm said.

The state-owned oil company has appointed D&M (DeGolyer and MacNaughton) and Gaffney, Cline and Associates to certify its reserves for the planned FPO early next year.

Oil and Natural Gas Corp wrote to Cairn Energy Plc insisting that the UK-based firm will need its explicit nod before it can sell its India unit to Vedanta Resources Plc.

Shares of the oil and gas giant started the day on a strong note and gained as much as 2.32 per cent totouch an early high of Rs 1,433 on BSE.

The state-owned oil and gas company's scrip rallied over 2 per cent on news of it bidding for British Petroleum's Vietnam assets.

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