Indian state-controlled refiner BPCL plans to invest one trillion rupees in its businesses in the next five years. It also plans to fully restart its Mumbai refinery in the first half of next month, the company's chairman and managing director Arun Kumar Singh said today.
Of the Rs1 trillion ($13.5bn), Rs300bn will be invested in its petrochemical business and Rs180bn in the upstream business, Singh said after its annual general meeting. It will invest Rs70bn in its biofuels segment.
"Energy landscape is changing fast and energy transition toward a low-carbon future has accelerated and BPCL is actively exploring new business opportunities for sustained growth," he said.
"We have plans to use green hydrogen as much as possible at our refineries, at least at refineries where we have abundant solar power and there is land and infrastructure to support hydrogen generation," he said.
BPCL is also in the process of converting 7,000 outlets into energy stations in the medium to long term, providing multiple fuelling options including gasoline, diesel, flexi-fuels, electric charging, CNG and, eventually, hydrogen, Singh said, adding that there are plans to increase electric vehicle charging stations to 1,000 in the short term.
The company is also looking to set up four ethanol plants with a capacity of between 100 kilolitres a day and 300 kl/d, while setting up a 100kl/d bio-ethanol refinery at Bargarh, Odisha.
Regarding the long-pending privatisation of the company, which was delayed because of a lack of adequate interest and the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, the chairman said that the stated position of completion as of now is March 2022.
Mumbai refinery restart
Some units at BPCL's 240,000 b/d Mumbai refinery were shut in the second week of this month for maintenance and it is anticipated that they will be restarted at the latest by the first fortnight of next month, Singh said.
He also mentioned that no other shutdowns were planned for the refinery in this financial year ending March 2022, but the 156,000 b/d Bina refinery will undergo a full planned shutdown next year. The Bina refinery in Madhya Pradesh, which started as a joint venture between BPCL and Oman Oil, became the wholly-owned subsidiary of the company in July.
Demand for gasoline has surpassed pre-pandemic levels so far this month, while diesel demand is down by 6-7pc compared with the same period in 2019, Singh said, adding that he anticipates consumption to reach pre-Covid levels or to maybe lag by 1-2pc next month if schools reopen and trucking activity increases.
