BPCL goes slow on power foray petchem, LNG plans on track

Bharat Petroleum seems to be doing a rethink on its earlier plan, announced last year, to foray into the power.

“We were thinking of putting up a 350-Mw power plant, which would have been scaled up to 1,050 Mw. But the cost of production per unit would have come to Rs 8.50, deterring buyers (of power) from signing on a long-term basis,” said a senior company official.

BPCL had contemplated setting up a gas-based power plant, including a facility for re-gasification and liquefaction.

The plan was made public last year, at its annual general meeting. The then chairman, S Radhakrishnan, said they were looking at joint ventures to enter the power sector and were likely to invest as much as Rs 600-1,000 crore on this.

Power apart, the board of directors have approved other investments. “As of on Monday, BPCL plans to spend Rs 40,000 crore in the next five years, in setting up a petrochemical plant at the Kochi refinery to produce niche products, expand the capacity of existing refineries, gas marketing and exploration and production,” said R K Singh, chairman and managing director.

BPCL is engaged in discussions with the government of Kerala for concessions on the investment in the planned petrochemical unit. It has planned to bring in an international partner.

The company is also working on a pre-feasibility report to set up a liquefied natural gas terminal, with an investment of around $1 billion (Rs 4,700 crore). The terminal will have a capacity of five to six million tonnes and is working on two locations, one on the east coast and the other on the west coast.

Bharat Oman Refineries, promoted by BPCL, is to expand capacity from the current six million tonnes per annum to nine mtpa. Engineers India is the consultant and is conducting a study.