BPCL plans to invest Rs 1.5 lakh crore in next 5 years towards Project Aspire

New Delhi: Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) unveiled its ambitious roadmap for the next five years at the 70th Annual General Meeting (AGM) held in New Delhi on Monday. “The company has planned a capex outlay of around Rs 1.5 lakh crore in the next five years. We believe this will enable BPCL to create long-term value for its stakeholders while preserving the planet for future generations”, said BPCL's Chairman & Managing Director G Krishnakumar.

Speaking at BPCL's annual shareholders meeting, Krishnakumar said, “We have consciously taken deliberate steps in reassessing and re-prioritizing our focus areas in light of the latest industry trends and governmental policies. Introducing 'Project Aspire' - our new strategy that is built on eight pivotal pillars. These pillars are clubbed under two main themes: 'Nurturing the Core' and 'Future Big Bets.' 'Nurturing the Core' has three foundational pillars: Refining, Marketing and Upstream. 'Future Big Bets' is anchored on five key areas: Gas, Non-fuel Retailing, Petrochemicals, Green Energy Businesses, and Digital Ventures. This aspiration is our roadmap to the future, and together, we will journey through this transformative era.”

BPCL has recently approved an Ethylene Cracker Project at Bina. With an investment of Rs 49,000 crores, this project marks a historic milestone as the largest single investment in BPCL's history. As a part of the project, the capacity of Bina Refinery is being enhanced from 7.8 MMTPA currently to 11 MMTPA, which is expected to go a long way in securing BPCL’s markets in the Northern and Central India. “We believe that this project will drive the production of essential petrochemicals - increasing the share of petrochemicals in BPCL’s product portfolio to approximately 8 percent. This investment dovetails well with the Government mission to make India a self-reliant and globally competitive petrochemical manufacturing hub,” added Krishnakumar.

“With an aim to expand BPCL’s infrastructure network, BPCL will be setting up POL (Petroleum Oil & Lubricants) and LOBS (Lube Oil Base Stock) installations along with receipt pipelines at Rasayani, with investments of approximately Rs 2,753 crore. This is expected to debottleneck the evacuation of products from Mumbai Refinery and ensure seamless supplies, particularly to the Northern markets”, said Krishnakumar.

BPCL is also diligently expanding its CGD networks across 25 Geographical Areas covering 62 districts in the country.

Towards achieving net-zero emissions by 2040 for both Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions, BPCL has drawn a net-zero roadmap which encompasses the Green Energy Businesses, Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage (CCUS), efficiency improvement, and the offset procurements. This would require an estimated phased capital outlay of approximately Rs 1 lakh crore till 2040 and BPCL is geared for the same.

In E-Mobility, BPCL plans to provide electric vehicle charging facilities at 7,000 energy stations in the next five years. Certain highways are already equipped with BPCL’s Rapid Charging EV Corridors.

In the Biofuel space, having achieved 10.6 percent ethanol blending in petrol in 2022-23, BPCL plans to increase the blending to 12 percent in FY 2023-24 and endeavors to reach 20 percent blending by 2025. BPCL is also setting up an integrated 2G + 1G Ethanol Bio-refinery at Bargarh, Odisha which is scheduled for completion by March 2024.

In the renewables space, BPCL aspires to build 1 Gigawatt (GW) of renewable energy capacity by 2025 and 10 GW by 2040 - through both organic and as well as inorganic routes. BPCL will be investing approximately Rs 1,000 crore to set up two 50MW captive wind power plants in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh to support the refineries in Mumbai and Bina.

In line with the government efforts towards boosting Green Hydrogen capacity, BPCL is also setting up a Green Hydrogen Plant at the Bina Refinery to meet the hydrogen requirements of the refinery.

Speaking about BPCL’s plans for the forthcoming rights issue, G Krishnakumar said, “The initiatives under Project Aspire and the Net-Zero targets require substantial investments and the same are proposed to be funded through a combination of equity and debt, in addition to internal generations. In pursuit of this, BPCL has proposed a rights issue of equity capital of upto Rs 18,000 crore towards the funding of projects relating to Energy Transition, Net Zero and Energy Security Objectives.”

Disclaimer: This story is a press release and is being published without any editing, except the headline, by the PSU Watch desk.

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