Latest News | BPCL Picks Andhra for New Refinery, Petchem Project
Get latest articles and stories on Latest News at LatestLY. State-owned Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) has picked Andhra Pradesh for setting up a new oil refinery-cum-petrochemical complex, which perhaps may be the last greenfield project before India transitions to clean energy sources.
New Delhi, Dec 24 (PTI) State-owned Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) has picked Andhra Pradesh for setting up a new oil refinery-cum-petrochemical complex, which perhaps may be the last greenfield project before India transitions to clean energy sources.
In a stock exchange filing, BPCL said its board at a meeting on Tuesday "accorded its approval to commence pre project activities for setting up of a green field refinery cum petrochemical complex in East Coast at Andhra Pradesh at an estimated cost of Rs 6,100 crore".
The pre-project activities include initial studies, land identification, and acquisition, preparation of detailed feasibility report, environment impact assessment, basic design engineering package, and front-end engineering design, it said.
The firm, however, did not reveal the capacity or the timelines for completing the project.
BPCL, which lost one of its four oil refineries to Oil India Ltd in the aborted privatisation plan, has lined up Rs 1.7 lakh crore of investment for expanding its core oil refining and fuel retailing business as well as in new energy ventures.
"To meet the anticipated demand beyond our planned expansions in Bina and Kochi (refineries), we are actively evaluating options for setting up additional integrated refining and petrochemical capacities in the next 5-7 years," Chairman G Krishnakumar had stated on August 30.
BPCL had to give up its Numaligarh refinery in Assam to Oil India Ltd when the government was attempting to privatise the company. The transfer was to keep the Numaligarh unit within the public sector to honour the Assam Accord. But BPCL privatisation was aborted due to lack of interest by bidders.
The firm is now left with refineries in Mumbai, Bina (Madhya Pradesh), and Kochi.
India -- the world's third largest oil consuming and importing nation -- has a refining capacity nearing 260 million tonnes and publicly announced plans will take it to 300 million tonnes by the end of the decade.
Its oil demand is growing at 4-5 per cent and the new refinery shows the country's confidence in fuel demand growth even as electric vehicles are eroding sales of oil consumption in China.
Building on strong Indian energy presence, BPCL aspires to meet 7-10 per cent of the nation's primary energy demand by 2047.
BPCL is targeting net-zero carbon emissions by 2040 by investing Rs 1 lakh crore in renewable power, green hydrogen, compressed biogas, carbon capture, utilisation, and storage (CCUS), energy efficiency improvements, and carbon offsets.
The company has set aggressive targets to build 2 GW of renewable energy capacity by 2025 and 10 GW by 2035.
It is investing nearly Rs 1,000 crore to establish two 50 MW captive wind power plants in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh and is also investing about Rs 300 crore in 72 MWp of solar project in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh.
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