Gearing up for new challenges

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: Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) is India’s second largest downstream oil refining and marketing company with a market share of 23.1% among public sector oil companies as on March 31, 2006. The company has two refineries in Mumbai and Kochi and a marketing network spread across the country. During 2005-06, the quantum of crude oil processed by the company amounted to 17.24 million metric tonnes (MMT). The market sales during the year stood at 21.63 MMT.

If 2005-06 was a difficult year for downstream oil companies on account of the rising international oil prices, the impact of the rising prices on the economy and the consumer has been contained through a policy of distributing the burden between the government of India, oil companies and consumers.

BPCL ended the year with a turnover of Rs 85,150 crore against Rs 63,857 crore in the previous year, an increase of 33.34%. The profit before tax for the year stood at Rs 407 crore and net profit at Rs 292 crore. Earnings per share for 2005-06 amounted to Rs 8.07.BPCL is also seeking to consolidate its presence in the upstream oil and gas sector and has formed a wholly owned subsidiary company to carry out all the exploration and production related activities. The company is a part of the consortia that have successfully bid for blocks in India and abroad.

Gas is another area where BPCL is increasing its presence. Besides marketing its allocation of LNG from Petronet LNG Limited, a joint venture company where BPCL is one of the promoters, the company has established joint ventures for undertaking city gas distribution projects in several cities.

The company is in the midst of embarking on an enterprise wide programme to energise and prepare itself for the emerging challenges and move to a different level of growth.

Under the initiative named ‘Project Destiny’, BPCL has set an ambitious target of becoming the most profitable downstream player in the country in the next few years. Achieving greater efficiency in the supply chain management system across the company has been identified as one of the most critical aspects. BPCL also has plans for entering the bio-fuels value chain.