With a focus on refinery expansion and petrochemicals, the state-owned Bharat Petroleum (BPCL) is looking to move ahead with its exploration and production projects overseas, including in Brazil and Mozambique, the company’s director-finance Vetsa Rama Krishna Gupta told FE during the ongoing India Energy Week conference. The company will sign a liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply deal with Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) for a period of five years starting FY26.
The company has completed the exploration in Brazil and has floated a tender for the development of the field. “We are expecting that the tender will be closed in June and July,” he said. In addition, BPCL also expects the force majeure in Mozambique to be lifted soon and resume its exploration and production operations there.
“We are aiming at continuity in investment in exploration. We have very large blocks in Brazil and Mozambique. There, the exploration stage is completed. Now, we are in the development stage,” Gupta said.
The company has earmarked Rs 1.7 lakh crore as capex over the five years starting FY25. It also envisages to increase the share of its petrochemical business to 7-8% from the current less than 2%.
“Our long-term strategy is we want to integrate our refineries with petrochemicals. We want to keep a good amount of capital for petrochemicals. For that we have already announced the Bina refinery expansion project with Rs 50,000 crore of capital outlay. And we are looking for one more refinery in Andhra Pradesh which is an integrated refinery plus petrochemical complex,” Gupta said.
Of the Rs 1.7-lakh-crore capex, BPCL will spend around Rs 75,000 crore in its petrochemical projects and refinery capacity expansion, and around Rs 25,000 crore in the city gas distribution business and building gas infrastructure. It plans to spend another Rs 25,000 crore in its exploration projects in Mozambique and Brazil with another Rs 10,000 crore in the renewable energy space.
The company aims at a total capex of Rs 16,000 crore in FY25, Rs 19,000 crore in FY26. BPCL, which has around 20,000 retail outlets at present, aims to add another 800-1,000 stations in the country in the next one-to-two years.
The state-run upstream company also plans to diversify into the renewable energy sector and has incorporated a 50:50 joint venture company aiming to create 3.5-4 gigawatt of green energy assets,
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