MUMBAI: Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL), which runs refineries on the country’s west coast at Mumbai and Kochi with a capacity of 12 and 15.5 MMTPA respectively, said it will be ready with BS-VI fuel by September. The company will be able to roll out the fuel from October to January, senior BPCL officials said Friday.
With the debottlenecking and increasing capacity at its joint venture Bina refinery to 7.8 MMTPA in Madhya Pradesh, the company has already been supplying BS-VI fuels to NCT-NCR, said Arun Kumar Singh, director marketing. BPCL had spent around `8,000 crore towards fuel upgradation to BS-VI standards.
Earlier, speaking to investors at the AGM, chairman D Rajkumar said BPCL is aggressive about its retail expansion. The company, which currently has a market share of 26 per cent in the fuel retailing would ideally like to have around 33 per cent market share, Rajkumar said. Of the 21,000 retail outlets it had advertised for earlier this year, the company has already issued Letters of Intent for 4,000 outlets, and has already commissioned 181, he added. BPCL is looking at adding 7,000 outlets to be commissioned over the years.
The company is also looking at future refinery expansions with petrochemicals in mind and at enhancing the convertibility from 1 per cent to 10 or maximum 15 per cent to petrochemicals. Kochi’s `5,300 crore propylene derivative plant would have mechanical completion by Saturday, and another `11,300 crore Polyols has been planned.