To achieve sustainable growth, thereby mitigating risk in oil & gas space, India’s second-largest oil marketing company and premier integrated energy company - Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL), is gearing up to accelerate its focus on new business segments.
On Tuesday, the company announced that it is exploring opportunities in biofuels, petchem, gas, electric mobility, consumer retail and digital transformation.
Arun Kumar Singh, CMD, BPCL, said, “In the years to come, BPCL has made aggressive investment plans. We shall be investing more than INR1 lakh crore at the group level, majorly in enhancing petrochemical capacity and improving refining efficiencies (INR 30,000 crore), gas proliferation (INR 20,000 crore), upstream oil and gas exploration and production (INR 18,000 crore) and augmenting marketing infrastructure (INR 18,000 crore). The investment will help BPCL prepare for the future where conventional fuels and zero-carbon mobility in the form of electric vehicles (EVs) and hydrogen will co-exist, while giving it the option to convert a greater degree of crude oil directly into high-value petrochemicals.”
Electric Vehicle Charging Network
BPCL said the company will leverage its nationwide network fuel stations to support electric mobility by converting around 7,000 conventional retail outlets into energy stations, providing multiple fueling options like petrol, diesel, flex fuels, EV charging facility, CNG and eventually hydrogen in the medium to long term.
Petrochemicals
With the commissioning of the Propylene Derivative Petrochemical Project (PDPP) at Kochi Refinery in February 2021, the company has joined the leaders in producing niche petrochemicals. It will increase its presence in the petrochemical landscape, integrating with its refining activity to diversify & hedge. It will create resilience both for the nation and for Bharat Petroleum, Singh said.
Natural Gas
By 2030, India is poised to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 35% by increasing the share of natural gas in overall energy consumption from 6.2% to 15%. BPCL is participating in the new gas economy through its Gas SBU and its group companies. The company is progressing with its CGD business in 37 Geographical Areas (Gas), including GAS JVs. Together these ventures are authorised to develop natural gas distribution across the country. 'So far, we have set up 1,393 fuel stations and have planned 12 LNG stations, including 644 of BPCL’s own. Our presence in CNG stations is going to grow manifold in the next few years. We also have a notable presence in the LNG business and have extensive plans to scale up this business and set up requisite infrastructure and filling stations,' he said.
Non-Fuel Retailing
BPCL is present in the retail space through its 'In & Out' and 'Beyond LPG' initiatives. With the Indian retail market poised for exponential growth, the company is fully geared up to enhance its footprints and emerge as a formidable player leveraging its assets, nationwide network of 19,000+ Fuel Stations and 6,200+ LPG Distributors and relationships that offers consumables, durables, and services. The company has created a ‘New Businesses Unit’ for focussed activities, he said.
Digital Transformation
Embarking upon a comprehensive digitalisation journey through 'Project Anubhav,' which enhances business process efficiencies, improves supply-chain transparency, draws market intelligence, will bolster BPCL’s marketing skills besides providing a unified view of customers to BPCL, he said.
The company has launched few key initiatives, including SalesBuddy, the Customer Relationship Management solution to build and nurture customer relationships; IRIS, the Digital Nerve Centre to enhance transparency in supply chai; Urja, the Artificial Intelligence (AI) based Chatbot proficient in 13 languages and HelloBPCL, a unified and integrated app for a one-stop solution, which will give a single-window view of BPCL to its customers.