Shirish Nadkarni
OGJ Correspondent
MUMBAI, Mar. 15 -- India's state-run Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd. (BPCL) plans to commission a 120,000 b/d refinery at Bina in Madhya Pradesh by yearend 2009. The project will cost $2.33 billion.
The refiner had earlier said it was planning an initial public offering of equity for the facility in about 2 years.
"We are losing 2 rupees/l. on petrol, 3 rupees/l. on diesel, 12 rupees/l. on kerosine, and 171 rupees/14 kg cylinder of liquefied petroleum gas due to the government subsidies on these products," said BPCL Chairman and Managing Director Ashok Sinha. One rupee is worth slightly more than 2¢.
"Our revenue losses on the sale of all fuels are likely to be around 40 billion rupees this fiscal [year]. In fact, crude prices have firmed up over the last few days, further adding to our losses," Sinha said.
BPCL also plans to invest 15 billion rupees during fiscal 2006-07 to expand its retail network, LPG capacity, and Mumbai-Delhi product pipeline.
News of BPCL's plans comes as one of the company's main rivals, Hindustan Petroleum Corp. Ltd. (HPCL), announced similar investment decisions. The company plans to raise the capacities of its Mumbai refinery to 7.9 million tonnes/year from 5.5 million tonnes/year and of its Visakhapatnam refinery to 8.4 million tonnes/year from 7.5 million tonnes/year.
