BPCL in Rs.1.4-trn mega capex plan

New Delhi: State-owned Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) will invest Rs 1.4 lakh crore in petrochemicals, city gas and clean energy in the next five years as it looks to non-fuel businesses for growth.

BPCL, the nation's second-biggest oil refining and fuel marketing company, is "recalibrating its strategies to leverage emerging opportunities while mitigating risks," its chairman and managing director Arun Kumar Singh said in the firm's latest annual report.

As countries across the world opt for cleaner, carbon-free fuel, oil companies are looking at businesses to de-risk their mainstay hydrocarbon operations. Gas is being seen as a transition fuel as electric mobility and hydrogen pick pace. "The company has firmed up plans to diversify and expand in adjacent and alternative businesses to create additional revenue streams and provide a hedge against any possible future decline in liquid fossil-fuel business," he said. BPCL, which owns 20,217 out of 83,685 petrol pumps in the country, is looking at not just selling petrol and diesel at the bunks but also providing EV charging as well as fuels of the future like hydrogen.

The company has firmed up plans to diversify and expand in adjacent and alternative businesses to create additional revenue streams and provide a hedge against any possible future decline in liquid fossil-fuel business

- Arun Kumar Singh, CMD, BPCL