Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) aims to reduce dependency on transport fuels and increase focus on petrochemicals in the light of electric vehicle push in the country.
The company plans to invest Rs 11,130 crore in expanding petrochemicals production at its refinery in Kochi till year 2024. At the group level, the company has decided to invest around Rs 1,10,000 crore in augmenting refining and marketing infrastructure, enhancing petchem capacity, upstream forays and gas proliferation.
"When we initially started, petrochemicals was just 1% as the focus was on transport fuels. That time we were only talking about transport fuel and did not look at petchem. With EVs coming in, there could be some likely impact on transportation fuels and so we are now taking up expansion in petchem. Our plan is to move from 1% to 10% or even 15% by 2024," D Rajkumar, chairman and managing director, BPCL said.
ROBUST PLANS
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- The company plans to invest Rs 11,130 crore in expanding petrochemicals output
- At group level, BPCL to invest around Rs 1,10,000 crore in raising refining and marketing infrastructure
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According to the BPCL officials, the company's integrated refinery at Kochi, with its installed capacity of 15.5 million metric tonne per annum (mmtpa) is the largest for a public sector refinery in the country.
Rajkumar said, "In the next five years, we plan to invest around Rs 1.10 lakh crore at the group level to augment the refining and marketing infrastructure and to enhance the petchem capacity, upstream forays and gas proliferation."
According to Rajkumar, the company is not only going to expand refinery but is also focusing on petchems keeping in mind the decline in demand for transport fuels. The company plans to invest Rs 20,000 crore for refineries' upgrade and expansion with investments planned keeping petrochemicals in mind.
The refinery throughput at BPCL's refineries at Mumbai and Kochi was 31.01 mmt as against 28.54 mmt achieved in the previous year.
