On the anvil: Rs.2,753 cr POL & LOBS installations along with pipelines at Rasayani
Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) has planned a capex outlay of around Rs.1.5 lakh crore over the next five years including a Rs.49,000 crore Ethylene Cracker Project at Bina Refinery.
The Bina Refinery capacity is being enhanced from 7.8 MMTPA currently to 11 MMTPA, which is expected to go a long way in securing BPCL’s markets in the Northern and Central India.
“We believe that this project will drive the production of essential petrochemicals – increasing the share of petrochemicals in BPCL’s product portfolio to approximately 8%,” G. Krishnakumar, Chairman & MD, BPCL, said at the company’s 70 Annual General Meeting held in Mumbai on 29 Aug 2023.
“This investment dovetails well with the government mission to make India a self-reliant and globally competitive petrochemical manufacturing hub,” he added.
Krishnakumar elaborated, “We have consciously taken deliberate steps in reassessing and re-prioritizing our focus areas in light of the latest industry trends and governmental policies.
“Introducing ‘Project Aspire’ – our new strategy that is built on eight pivotal pillars. These pillars are clubbed under two main themes: ‘Nurturing the Core’ and ‘Future Big Bets’. ‘Nurturing the Core’ has three foundational pillars: Refining, Marketing and Upstream. ‘Future Big Bets’ is anchored on five key areas: Gas, Non-fuel Retailing, Petrochemicals, Green Energy Businesses, and Digital Ventures.
“This aspiration is our roadmap to the future, and together, we will journey through this transformative era.”
BPCL is also expanding infrastructure network by setting up Rs.2,753 crore POL (Petroleum Oil & Lubricants) & LOBS (Lube Oil Base Stock) installations along with receipt pipelines at Rasayani.
“This is expected to debottleneck the evacuation of products from Mumbai Refinery and ensure seamless supplies, particularly to the Northern markets,” said Krishnakumar.
BPCL is also diligently expanding its City Gas Distribution (CGD) networks across 25 Geographical Areas covering 62 districts in the country.
Further, BPCL has drawn a Rs.1 lakh crore net-zero roadmap which encompasses the Green Energy Businesses, Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage (CCUS), efficiency improvement, and the offset procurements. This would require an estimated phased capital outlay till 2040 for achieving net-zero emissions by 2040 for both Scope 1 & Scope 2 emissions.
In E-Mobility, BPCL plans to provide electric vehicle charging facilities at 7,000 energy stations in the next five years. Certain highways are already equipped with BPCL’s Rapid Charging EV Corridors.
In the Biofuel space, having achieved 10.6% ethanol blending in petrol in 2022-23, BPCL plans to increase the blending to 12% in FY 2023-24 and endeavors to reach 20% blending by 2025.
BPCL is also setting up an integrated 2G + 1G Ethanol Bio-refinery at Bargarh, Odisha which is scheduled for completion by March 2024.
In the renewables space, BPCL will be investing approximately Rs.1,000 crore to set up two 50MW captive wind power plants in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh to support the refineries in Mumbai and Bina. BPCL aspires to build 1 gigawatt (GW) of renewable energy capacity by 2025 and 10 GW by 2040 – through both organic and as well as inorganic routes.
In line with the government efforts towards boosting Green Hydrogen capacity, BPCL is also setting up a Green Hydrogen Plant at the Bina Refinery to meet the hydrogen requirements of the refinery.
Speaking about BPCL’s plans for the forthcoming rights issue, Krishnakumar said, “The initiatives under Project Aspire and the Net-Zero targets require substantial investments and the same are proposed to be funded through a combination of equity and debt, in addition to internal generations.
“In pursuit of this, BPCL has proposed a rights issue of equity capital of upto Rs.18,000 crore towards funding of projects relating to Energy Transition, Net Zero and Energy Security Objectives.”
A Fortune Global 500 Company, Bharat Petroleum’s Refineries at Mumbai, Kochi and Bina Refinery have a combined refining capacity of around 35.3 MMTPA. Its marketing infrastructure includes a network of installations, depots, energy stations, aviation service stations and LPG distributors. Its distribution network comprises over 21,000 Energy Stations, over 6,200 LPG distributorships, 525 Lubes distributorships, 123 POL storage locations, 53 LPG Bottling Plants, 70 Aviation Service Stations, 4 Lube blending plants and 4 cross-country pipelines. Fiinews.com
