Bharat Petroleum plans Rs 1 lakh crore expansion

CHENNAI: Oil marketing major Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) has set a target of Rs 1 lakh crore to be spent on all its expansion activities including marketing and refining in the next five years and also has plans to venture into gas business and diversify resources for the source of fuels as part of its five-year plan.

“We want our market cap to reach Rs 2.50 lakh crore. That is 2.5 times increase of what it is now. We have also planned to venture into gas business. That will be our next value chain,” said D. Rajkumar, BPCL chairman and managing director. Speaking to reporters here on Thursday he said, company has taken up “an experiment' to import crude oil from the United States under its 'diversification' exercise. “We really want to ensure that the prices are kept within the limits. For that it is necessary we source it from the right sources. We have been looking at various sources. Whatever we import, the crude will be refined in our existing refiners within the existing configuration,” he said in reply to a question, and added “right now, what we are trying to do is to diversify our sources in an efficient manner.”

Kochi Refinery final commissioning by August-end: The final commissioning of the expansion project of its Kochi Refinery is expected to happen by August-end. Talking to reporters on the sidelines of an announcement of revised commission for its dealers and the benefits it would fetch for the company, Mr Rajkumar, chairman and managing director of BPCL, said, “Kochi refinery expansion has already been completed. While the original plan was to spend around Rs. 16,800 crore, we have been able to complete the entire project at Rs 16,000 crore. Mechanically, the project has been completed and the commissioning process is on.”

Revises dealers' commission:  BPCL said that the company has revised the dealers' commission between 20-50 per cent based on their category, which would help it to improve the brand image and provide benefits to the dealers, employees working in the petrol pumps and the customers.   Mr Rajkumar said dealers were instructed to ensure that employees of fuel outlets were covered under the Centre's social security schemes  - 'Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana' (accident death insurance) and 'Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana'. On the impact of daily price revision, he said from the date it was introduced (June 17), there was a maximum increase in the fuel price by 18 paise while reduction was 27 paise a litre. BPCL, the second largest OMC after IndianOil, accounted for 14,000 outlets of the total 55,000 belonging to the three public sector refiners, including HPCL, he added.