BPCL's Numaligarh Refinery plans to increase capacity by Three fold

Bharat Petroleum Corporation’s (BPCL) Numaligarh Refinery in Assam plans to invest Rs 20000 crore to increase its refining capacity by threefold to 9 million metric tonnes per annum. The company has sought concessions from the Centre and state government for its proposed refinery expansion project. BPCL is looking for capital subsidy and excise concession from the government.

The board of BPCL already cleared the expansion of the project which includes a 6 MMTPA crude oil pipeline for transporting imported crude from the east coast. The company is also making initiatives to enter markets of neighbouring countries. Numaligarh Refinery is pursuing plans to lay a 135 km petroleum product pipeline from its terminal at Siliguri in West Bengal to Parbatipur in Bangladesh.

According to the company, feasibility study and field survey for the pipeline has been completed. A memorandum of understanding has been signed between the company and Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation to form a joint venture for implementing the pipeline project.

Financially, BPCL's revenue declined by 22.2 per cent to Rs 51966 crore in Q1FY16 on yearly basis. The company's raw material prices decreased by 25.67 per cent to Rs 18811 crore in Q1FY16 compared to same period in previous fiscal year. The company's EBITDA more than doubled to Rs 3818 crore in Q1FY16 on yearly basis. BPCL's net profit increased by 96.37 per cent to Rs 2376 crore in Q1FY16 compared to same period in previous financial year.

BPCL's shareholding pattern indicates that FII holdings expanded by 95 basis points to 18.13 per cent and DII holdings contracted by 57 basis points to 12.08 per cent during June 2015 quarter. The share price of the company on BSE increased by 0.98 per cent on ewarly trades and trading at Rs 845.85 on intraday basis.

BPCL also plans to expand its Bina oil refinery in Madhya Pradesh by 30 per cent to 1.56 lakh barrels per day at a cost of about USD 472 million. The expansion of the Bina oil refinery will be completed by 2018. The company earmarked a capex of Rs 10000 crore on the expansion of its Kochi refinery to 15.5 million tonnes per annum from the current 9.5 million tonnes.

BPCL is engaged in the business of refining of crude oil and marketing of petroleum products. The Company has refineries at Mumbai and Kochi, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) bottling plants and lube blending plants. It operates through two segments viz. downstream petroleum i.e. Refining & marketing of petroleum products and exploration & production of hydrocarbons (E&P) segment. BPCL’s marketing infrastructure includes a network of installations, depots, retail outlets, aviation service stations and LPG distributors.